by James Harden
I still can’t get over the accuracy, the skill it would’ve taken from the soldier firing the arrow. To hit Scott’s hand. To injure without killing. To disarm him.
“We don’t plan on staying here,” Kim says.
“Yeah,” Parker adds. “We’re getting the hell out. This place is death. It’s a tomb. It needs to be buried.”
Parker is losing his cool, losing his mind.
“We’re getting rescued,” Daniel says with a level voice. “Our people are on their way here right now. You can come with us if you want.”
Sarah doesn’t understand. “Get out? No. There is no getting out. You’re trapped down here. We’re all trapped.”
“We’re not trapped,” Daniel reassures. “There is a rescue coming.”
For a second I think I hear something that sounds like desperation in Daniel’s voice.
There is a rescue coming.
I point to Daniel and Parker and Scott. “These guys work for the company. They’ve organized an extraction. All we need to do is get to the Vehicle Access Point.”
Sarah thinks about this. She thinks hard. “Why would they come back for you? Why risk it?”
Her thinking is cold and rational and calculated.
And she’s right. Why would the company risk more lives to save three soldiers, three pawns, who for all they know are quite possibly infected?
They already got what they came for.
Doctor Hunter.
The man in the gas mask.
Kim and Maria’s blood samples.
The primary objectives.
I shake my head. They have to come back. They will come back. I have to believe this because this is the only thing keeping us going.
Escape.
Rescue.
This is the only thing keeping us together right now.
“They’ll be there,” Daniel says. “Trust me.”
He has said this a few times now.
Trust me…
And I want to believe him. I want to trust him.
“And you’re sure you can get me out of here?” Sarah asks.
“Yes,” Daniel says. “On one condition.”
“What do you want? I don’t have any guns. I have no ammo. Barely any food or water. I have nothing to bargain with.”
“You help us get through the residential sector and we’ll get you out of the Fortress, we’ll get you above ground.”
She thinks it over. She shakes her head. “It’s too good,” she whispers. “It’s too good to be true.”
“This is real,” I say. “These guys are Evo Agents, they’re part of a rescue team. The company is sending reinforcements. We are getting out of here.”
She doesn’t want to believe it. She has been disappointed before. She has learnt the hard way that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. She has learnt not to trust people. She has been hurt. She has lost everything. The only way she has managed to survive, is on her own. By herself. By taking charge of her own life, her own fate, her own destiny. Once you have that kind of control, once you know you can survive on your own, it’s tough to let people back in, to accept help from others.
“Please,” Maria says. “We’re not lying. We’re good people. We can get you out.”
Sarah takes a deep breath. “I can maybe help you get to the Vehicle Access Point,” Sarah says. “But it won’t be easy.”
“That’s all we need,” Daniel says. “You guide us through and we’ll take care of the rest. We’ll protect you.”
Daniel says we’ll protect her. But how? We only have one gun. A handgun. We only have a few EMP grenades. We have almost nothing. We are bleeding and disappearing and dying.
And Sarah calls his bluff. “You can’t protect me. You can’t even protect yourselves.”
“Well, you can’t stay here,” Parker says. “Getting out is all that matters. And we can get you to a secure base. Far away from here. Far away from the infection.”
“No,” Sarah says, changing her mind. “I can’t go with you.”
“What? But you just said you would,” Parker says. “And you can’t stay here. There is nothing but death down here.”
“I can’t help you. Go back the way you came. There's nothing for you here.”
“We can’t go back,” Kim says.
“Why not?”
“You know why.”
“Look, there’s a lot more infected inside the residential area,” Sarah warns. “A lot more.”
“We can’t go back because we set the place on fire,” Kim says.
We are burning our bridges. We are burning down the old Empires. And the man in the gas mask was right. We can’t go back.
“You what?”
“We set the Vehicle Access Point on fire,” Kim explains.
“What the hell for?”
“To slow them down.”
“Fire is not going to stop them.”
“We know that. We were just buying enough time to get away. But we can’t go back.”
“Please,” Maria says. “We need your help.”
Sarah continues to think about it. She thinks long and hard.
Why would she risk her life for us?
What can we offer her?
Freedom?
Safety?
Refuge?
I wasn’t even sure that Daniel’s people could get us out.
“Please,” Maria repeats. “You have to help us. There’s nowhere else to go. We have no other choice.”
“Fine,” she says. “If you can find a way out of this place, if you can get me above ground, I’ll take it. But I can’t go with you to your base, or wherever you’re going. I have to get back…”
“Back where?” I ask.
“There’s a small town. About three or four days away. They built walls. They built them early. Big walls. They secured it. My sister and I made it there. They took us in. They looked after us. They saved us. My sister is still there. I have to get back.”
“How long ago was this?”
“A couple of months ago.”
“How can you be sure the town is still safe?”
“I have to believe it’s still safe.”
She has to believe because it is the only thing keeping her going.
Don’t lose hope.
“Why did you leave?” I ask.
“Because I was stupid. Someone I cared about went missing. So I chased. I searched. Ended up here. Been hiding and cheating death ever since. But I need to get back. My sister is there. I know she is.” Sarah lowers her head. “They say home is where the heart is, but it’s not. We had found a refuge. A paradise. A safe haven. But the person who had my heart, he left. He was taken. So I chased. I can’t believe I left her. I never should have left…”
Her story is similar to Jack’s. It is a human story. We base our decisions, our survival on our emotions. We don’t care about the consequences. We don’t care about the risk.
We don’t care about the threat of death.
Home is where the heart is.
But the heart is not a place.
The heart lies with people. And this is why we follow them. Into the desert. Into the apocalypse. Into hell.
This is why Jack risked his life and ran off into the desert.
This is why Sarah had done the same.
She looks over at Scott. “Has he been bitten?”
“No,” Parker answers quickly. “He was hit with an arrow.”
“And you?” she asks Jack.
Jack shakes his head. “Same deal.”
“Death Squad,” Sarah says under her breath. “Where are they now?”
“We don’t know,” I say.
“Why didn’t they kill you?” she asks.
“They were going to, but then they didn’t. They just… I don’t really know. It’s almost like they are tired of killing.” I shake my head. “One of our people joined up with them. They tried to force him to kill us, to slit our throats. It was like some sort of initiat
ion. They needed to know if they could trust him. But then a nano-swarm showed up. And they split. They seemed to have adopted the same strategy that you have.”
“A nano-swarm?”
“Yeah, you know? A swarm. Black smoke.”
“There’s one down here? I thought they were only outside, in the desert?”
“There’s one inside, it’s loose.”
I don’t tell her that it appears to be hunting us.
“Don’t worry,” Parker says. “We have EMP grenades. As long as we stay alert, we can defend ourselves.”
“And those grenades will kill the swarm?”
“No,” he says. “But it will stun the swarm.”
“OK, so the swarm showed up and then the Death Squad retreated?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I answer. “And like I said, I also got this feeling, like they are tired of killing. They hesitated. They were reluctant.”
I could see it in their eyes, I think to myself. They were tired of killing. They were tired of dying. They were sick of it all. They were on the verge of losing hope.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Maria asks. “Reluctant? They were going to slit our throats!”
I shake my head. “No, they weren’t. Well, they were. But that was only for Ben to prove himself. It was like a rite of passage for him. An initiation into their group. It wasn’t personal.”
“What do you mean?” Sarah asks. “It sounds like they almost killed you.”
“They could’ve killed us easily,” I explain. “They’ve had more than one chance. But they didn’t. They showed mercy. They shot at us. They shot Jack and Scott. But they didn’t shoot to kill. So I believe they’re tired of killing. They’re tired of playing the role of Death Squad. They know the rest of the military has abandoned them. They know they’re on their own. They’ve been left for dead. Just like everyone else. So they’re going to hide. They’re going to wait.”
“Smart,” Sarah says. “Especially since we’re trapped down here. Nothing else to do but hide and wait it out.”
“Hold on a second,” Maria says. “You keep saying we’re trapped. What do you mean we’re trapped?”
Sarah furrows her brow. “Surely you already know. We’re trapped. We’re locked in. I don’t know why you guys think you can get outside. I guess you must know someone important. But the rest of us? We’re locked in. And besides, the residential sector is overrun. It’s contaminated with the airborne strain of the virus. We are all trapped. The very air we breathe is toxic. There is no getting out.”
“Have we been exposed?” I asked.
“No. There’s a few safe areas. This is one. There’s a few others. But they are all isolated, the only way to move around is with one of these.” She holds up the gas mask. “And I’ve only got four spares here. I mean, I like to be prepared. But eight people is a lot of people.”
Maria takes a deep breath. “Are you saying we have to draw straws? Are you saying we have to leave people behind?”
“Sort of…”
“What the hell does that mean?” Kim asks.
“Keep. Your. Voice. Down.”
“I’m sorry,” Kim says, only slightly lowering her voice. “But we are not leaving anyone behind. No way. We’ll go back the way we came before we do that.”
“I have more gas masks,” Sarah says. “And air filters. I’ve hidden them all over the residential sector. But to get them I have to go through contaminated areas. To get to them I have to sneak past a few thousand infected zombies.”
Another life threatening decision.
“So if I’m going to risk my neck for you people, I need you to promise me you can get me out of here. I need you to promise me you’ll get me above ground.”
“I promise,” Daniel says.
Kenji nods his head. “We’re your best bet.”
“We may not look like much,” I say. “But we’ve been through a lot.” I point at Daniel and Parker and Scott. “These guys work with the company. If anyone can get us out, it’s these guys.”
Sarah takes a deep breath. She points at the gas masks. “Well, we need four more gas masks. So who’s it going to be? Who gets to come with me? Who wants to be a hero?”
Chapter 17
We all look at each other. Who’s it going to be?
Who wants to sneak in and around a countless number of infected psychopaths?
Who wants to walk and crawl and move through toxic, poisonous air?
“Do you want to draw straws?” Sarah asks. “Or does someone want to volunteer?”
“We’re not drawing straws,” Kim says.
“I’ll go,” Kenji says, because of course he says this. He will never admit to it, but he is a hero. In every sense of the word. He is self-sacrificing. He is strong. He never gives up.
“I’ll go as well,” Daniel says. “We’re your best options.”
He’s right.
But he’s not.
Because Sarah shakes her head. “No. You’re both too big. Too tall. You’ll make too much noise. The bigger you are, the bigger the target. They’ll find you quicker. And besides, we need to squeeze through some pretty tight spaces.” She looks them up and down. “I don’t know if you’ll fit.”
Daniel is out. Kenji is out. Parker, who is looking more and more terrified with each passing moment, is out. Scott is also out of the question. His eyes are barely open. His skin is pale. He is still holding his hand close to his chest.
She turns to me. Maria. Kim.
Jack is out. His main priority right now is to stop the bleeding from his leg. The bandage wrapped around the wound seems to be doing a pretty good job, but there is still a lot of blood. So it comes down to me, or Kim, or Maria.
In my exhausted mind I’m picturing the path we will need to take.
Air vents and air ducts. Crawl spaces.
We will need to make our way through the cracks of this Fortress.
“I’ll go,” Kim says.
“No. You’ve been arguing with me the whole time. You’re too loud.”
“I’m not going to argue with you out in the open.”
“And I’m not going to take that chance. I’m not going to risk it. I don’t want to get into a screaming match with you out there, or in the middle of a crowd of infected.”
“I’ve been down here a long time,” Kim says. “I can do this.”
“Don’t care. You’re not going.”
Me. Maria. We were up.
“Let me go with you,” Daniel says. “I’m trained for this kind of thing.”
“No. I already told you, you’re too big.”
This is how she has survived. By being smart. And small. Small enough to fit into tunnels and air ducts and crawl spaces. This is how mammals survived extinction level events, asteroids, super volcanoes, and why the dinosaurs did not.
She points to me. “You’re my size, you’ll fit. And you,” she points to Maria.
Maria nods. She’s willing. Of course she’s willing. She has no problem risking her life for her friends.
But she is not able.
She is still hung over, she is still drugged. I can see it in her eyes. They are glassy and unfocused and bloodshot. Her movements are slow and sluggish.
Not that I’m much better.
“No,” I say. “She’s been drugged. So has Kim.”
Maria does not argue.
But Kim does. “I’m fine, really.”
“Drugged?” Sarah asks.
“We ran into some trouble…”
I begin to explain what had happened to us, but Sarah doesn’t want to hear any of it.
“Save it. Don’t wanna know.”
This girl is tough as nails. As cold as ice. She doesn’t want to get close to us. And I understand. I totally understand. It will be less painful if worse comes to worse.
She looks at me. “So, you ready? You up for this?”
“I’m ready,” I say as confidently as I can.
I want to sound con
fident. I want to sound strong. For my friends. I want them to have faith in me. I want them to believe I can get the job done. That I’ll be back for them. That we are getting out of this hellhole.
I want them to have hope.
So for my friends, I lie.
For my friends, I lie and I say, “I’m ready. I can do this. No problem.”
“We need to move through the commercial district,” Sarah says. “You’ll need to stay close to me. Like you’re my shadow. There are certain areas we will need to avoid.”
I nod my head, stepping closer to her.
“I only have four spare gas masks here. The rest are hidden throughout the residential sector. And I have a few at my… home.”
She hesitates when she calls it her home.
“But my place is too far away,” she continues. “So we’re going into the mall.”
She hands me a gas mask. It is a different style to the one I am used to seeing. Instead of little black eye goggles, it has a big clear screen, for a big field of vision.
It has one air filter.
It has a colored display reading on the lower part of the face screen that reminds me of a battery charge on a phone.
This display reading has four colored bars.
Bright green.
Yellow.
Orange.
Red.
The red light was illuminated.
“What does this mean?” I ask.
“These masks were used by the research scientists,” Sarah explains. “And I wouldn’t be alive without them. These filters last for twenty-four hours each. The display reading tells you and whoever you are working with, how long you’ve got, how long the air filters have left. When the red light is illuminated it means the air filter will last for another five minutes.”
Five minutes.
I’m starting to realize that we won’t have very long to get in, find the other gas masks, and get back.
Minutes. Seconds.
“When the air filter expires, it will close off the air supply. When that happens you need to switch it out with a new one. The gas mask will beep at you before it closes off. So you’ll know when to switch it over. Got it?”
I nod my head.
“Does that watch have a timer?” she asks, pointing to my left wrist.
I look at my watch, the digital watch the man in the gas mask gave me.
The face is blank. It is no longer working.
