by James Harden
"Are they going to use nukes?" Kim asked.
"I don’t know," Kenji said as he looked around for a way off the bridge.
The crowd started shouting and the gunfire in the distance intensified. We could see the jets now. They flew in low and fast. They were so low you could see each individual missile on the underside of their wings and see every little scuff mark. The noise of their engines made you feel like the world was coming to an end.
Seemingly from nowhere a whole swarm of helicopters descended and hovered over the bridge dropping rope ladders to extract the soldiers. A few people tried to climb up but they were quickly beaten back. The soldiers left the majority of their equipment behind. They took with them only what they could carry.
Once the helicopters cleared out we could see the jets way off on the horizon begin to slowly turn back around.
"Run!" Kenji shouted over all the noise. "Go! Run as fast as you can."
We started running as did everyone else. No one really knew where they were running to. We could only move in one direction. We could worry about what was on the other side when we got there. The only thing we knew for certain was that we needed to get off the bridge. It was a no man's land. At that moment we were completely stranded above water and completely vulnerable.
We got about half way when we heard the first explosion. It wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be. The bridge shook and groaned. Everyone ducked instinctively. But nothing seemed to happen. The collective panic that had seemed to grip everyone disappeared momentarily and was replaced by confusion. The screaming and shouting was reduced to a murmur.
On Kenji’s radio we could hear loud and clear the result of what had just happened. "Positive ignition for southern end of tunnel. Repeat, positive ignition."
This voice was different to the other one. It was calm, almost emotionless.
Kenji yelled at us to keep running. So we did. People all around us started to catch on. The panic returned and so did the screams.
"They've blown the southern entrance to the tunnel!" Kenji Shouted.
I couldn’t believe they actually did it. How many people had just been killed? How long before they blew the bridge?
We didn’t have to wait long. About ten seconds later a huge explosion erupted at the northern end, right where we were standing not even five minutes ago. Everyone on the bridge was knocked off their feet. The whole bridge started to sway and the massive steel support structures began to buck and warp out of shape.
The road eventually broke away from the north pylon and crashed into the water. As the road fell away we started to slide downwards, to a certain death. I'm not sure how far it was but it felt like we were falling forever. I'm not even sure how we survived the initial impact but the next thing I knew we were in the water with thousands of other people.
I came up for air. Jack and Maria were right next to me. They were good swimmers both of them. Jack was probably one of the best swimmers at school. He grabbed me because he knew I was terrible. Sure I was getting better with all those surfing lessons but I was still an amateur compared to those two. And right now was no time for doggy paddle.
Some people were being crushed by falling debris and falling people. Others were unconscious by the time they hit the water. But the thing that scared me the most was not the falling bits of concrete and steel, it was the people who were dragging others down underneath the water, drowning them without realizing what they were doing. They weren’t doing it on purpose. They were just trying to survive. They were just afraid. So I was thankful that Jack had grabbed me. If he hadn’t I probably would’ve been one of those people, dragging someone else down with me.
We managed to swim a few meters away from where we hit the water. Any second now they would blow the remaining charges on the bridge and the whole thing would come crashing down on top of us. I wiped some water out of my eyes and looked up. The parts of the bridge that had survived the initial explosion were straining and twisting under the enormous stress. The noise of breaking steel was terrifying. It reminded me of Godzilla’s scream; metallic and blood curdling. Somehow the road was still attached to the southern pylon. And amazingly, there were a lot of people still actually on the bridge, holding on for dear life.
Everyone else had fallen into the water with us. There must have been thousands of people. We looked around for Kim and Kenji. They weren't too far away. Kenji was telling us to go, to swim as fast as we could. So we did. We swam hard. It was simple really; we needed to get as far out of the way as possible because when the bridge came down, it would kill everyone underneath.
I saw Maria swimming out in front of Jack and me. She had already caught up to Kim and Kenji. Jack was pulling me along. There were people all around us. Splashing their arms wildly, pumping their legs as fast as they could. Jack got kicked in the face a couple of times.
Above us, the bridge continued to slowly break apart but it seemed to be holding for the moment with the southern end still intact. We were able to put some distance between us and the rest of the crowd. Suddenly there was another explosion. Metal screamed and shrieked in pain as the iconic bridge buckled and finally collapsed into the harbor crushing anyone trapped beneath it.
I looked back and saw a huge wave of white wash bearing down on us.
Jack grabbed my hand. "Duck dive!" he shouted. "Just like I taught you, remember?"
I nodded my head as I remembered the very first time he tried to teach me how to surf. Lesson number one; diving under a wave to avoid getting killed. I think I swallowed my weight in sea water that day.
He gripped my hand tighter as I took a huge gulp of air. "Wait for it! OK, now!"
We dove together, the white water crashing all around us, pushing us around like we were in a giant washing machine.
We resurfaced and I took another deep breath. The water was still churning as the road and the massive steel supports sunk to the bottom of the harbor. There was now a huge expanse where the famous bridge used to be.
Chapter 21
Aircraft continued to roar overhead. I could see three of them flying in perfect formation. They were coming around for another pass at the bridge, or whatever remained of it. They flew low and fast, skimming the water. They were coming right for us. Jack took me under the water again, a split second later they flew directly over us. Even under water the noise was deafening. When we surfaced the jets were looping high into the sky. They came around and straightened up firing missiles directly at the remains of the giant concrete pylons and the toll booths, making sure no one survived the initial explosions.
They looped again like they were in the midst of a choreographed routine. It was both terrifying and weirdly graceful in the same instant. This time when they straightened up they pointed their noses towards the highway we had just walked down, the highway that was currently choked up with scared and confused people. They flew low and fast directly over the road. They flew in tight formation. It was a display of expert and deadly precision. When their bombs hit the ground a wall of flames erupted the full length of the highway.
I’ll never forget the sight and the noise of all that destruction. The twisted metal. The roaring flames.
Kenji was still yelling at us to swim. He told us to head towards land. But we needed to avoid the crowds. We also needed to avoid the areas closest to the roads, the bridge and the tunnel.
We didn’t have many options. I could barely see through all the splashing of arms and feet. It was a miracle this many people had survived the initial explosion and the collapse of the bridge. Everyone was panicking and frantic, exactly the opposite of how you’re supposed to act when you’re in the water. I remember Jack telling me once if I ever got caught in a riptide or undertow, do not panic. Just relax and let the rip take you. And even though this situation was a little different to being caught in a rip, panicking was not a good idea.
We swam for a few minutes and the crowd began to thin out as people became more and more tired. It wa
s then the helicopters came. I think some people initially thought they had come to help. They were even waving their arms, hoping to get picked up, hoping to get rescued. The helicopters hovered in closer over the crowd. I remember thinking they didn't look like rescue choppers. They were too small. They had too many weapons. Unfortunately I was right.
I heard Kenji yell something. I think he told us to dive.
Jack told me to take a deep breath so I inhaled as much air as my lungs could take. All the diving was wearing me out. The lack of oxygen was making it hard to think straight, hard to move. Everything was happening so fast, the speed and precision with which the military moved was unbelievable. It also meant that all this was pre-meditated.
We dived again. Just before we went under the helicopters unleashed their guns. They were mean looking guns with multiple rotating barrels. The bullets chopped up the water and chopped up anyone caught in the line of fire, adding to the frenzy and panic, adding blood to the water. The death toll continued to rise. It was a massacre, there’s just no other way to describe it. And there was no way we could out swim these helicopters and their weapons. It didn’t matter how good a swimmer Jack was or how many big waves he had surfed. This was too much.
We hadn’t even come up for a breath. Jack was still diving, dragging me down with him; bullets were trailing through the water all around us. My lungs were on fire. I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold my breath. I felt like I was going to black out. Suddenly the bullet trails changed direction, like they were being pushed. That’s when the shockwave from the secondary charge from the tunnel hit us.
It hit us like a freight train and we were pushed and thrown around like rag dolls. It wasn’t like a washing machine this time, it was much more violent. Jack held on to me in a bear hug as tight as he could. If he didn’t, we would have been separated for sure and who knows where I would’ve ended up. I probably would’ve drowned. We were pushed a long way underwater. It must have been like surfing a big wave and being wiped out and then being wiped out by the rest of the big waves in the set, constantly being tossed around like a cork, one after the other.
When I finally surfaced and took massive, gulping, gasping breaths I braced myself to be torn to pieces by the machine guns. But surprisingly we were a good distance away from the helicopters, taken further than I thought by the underwater current created by the explosion. Suddenly, we didn’t need to out swim the search and destroy helicopters.
Jack asked me if I was all right as he looked around for the others. He spotted Kim about fifty meters away. "Kim! Over here!" he yelled as she immediately started swimming towards us.
Over our shoulders, further away from the bridge were Kenji and Maria
"Jack!" Maria shouted, waving her arms.
"This way," Kenji said, "We need to hide from those choppers."
We waited for Kim to catch up with us, which didn't take long. She was swimming like an Olympic champion. I guess the fear of being shot or blown to bits will tend to do that.
We swam over to Kenji and Maria. I was in total disbelief we had all survived. The Sydney Harbor Bridge had just been demolished as well as the tunnel. I mean, everything had just been completely destroyed. So many people had just been murdered. It was too much to think about, especially since we weren’t even out of danger yet.
We were treading water, looking around, trying to catch our breaths. Waiting. Watching. Making sure those damn helicopters of death weren’t coming after us.
I think in some ways it hit Kenji the hardest. I think he felt responsible. He just witnessed the military massacre hundreds of thousands of people and if he hadn’t run away when he did, then maybe he would’ve been part of it. I tried to reassure him. "You said it yourself. Someone else is in charge."
"I know. I just can't believe the order was given."
"We’ll make them pay," I said. "I don't know how, but we'll find whoever's responsible and we'll make them pay."
I think I was delirious from lack of oxygen or too much sea water. We could’ve been shot to pieces at any moment and there I was, making vendettas.
"Come on," Jack said. "If we swim around to Darling Harbor it should be a bit more sheltered."
"Yeah, good idea," Kim agreed. "It might give us a chance to get out of the water undetected."
"We should stay close to the harbor wall so those Apaches can’t see us so easily," Kenji said.
"What the hell is an Apache?" Maria asked.
"Those helicopters. The ones killing all the people. Hopefully they'll be too busy with everyone else to come looking for us."
It was a gruesome thought but we were all thinking it. Well at least I was. I wanted those choppers and their machine guns as far away from us as possible.
"So this is all part of the containment protocol?" Kim asked as she looked at the ruins of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
"I don't know," Kenji answered. "I never thought it would come to this."
We slowly started swimming for Darling Harbor and in my exhausted state of mind I thought to myself that postcards of Sydney will never be the same.
Chapter 22
We needed to get out of the water or else we wouldn't survive long, we were sitting ducks. Well maybe not the others but I felt useless, like a bit of driftwood floating around. I was struggling just to keep my head above water. I now know why humans as a race are scared of sharks. Not only are sharks perfect killing machines, but when you're in the water, you're helpless, completely out of your element. You can’t just run away and you certainly can't hide.
Jack said that our best chance of survival would be Darling Harbor. We could swim to one of the jetty’s there and hide on one of the boats. The only problem; it was about a two kilometer swim.
I told jack I was fine to swim on my own now it was less chaotic. The choppers were still buzzing around but they were concentrating their firepower over near the ruins of the bridge where the majority of the survivors were. Every now and then the roar of jet engines would tear through the sky but fortunately they weren’t concerned with us either.
Jack reluctantly let me go and I almost sunk right under. It was amazing just how much he was actually lifting and pulling me through the water. He had without a doubt saved my life.
So we swam for Darling Harbor and pretty soon I was lagging behind everyone else. Not by much at first but after a few minutes I was at least a hundred meters behind. Jack would stop every now and then to make sure I was all right.
"Come on, it's just a little bit further," he called back.
I lost track of how many times he said that. It felt way longer than two kilometers, more like we were swimming across the English Channel. Every couple of strokes I had to take a break and catch my breath but the sound of distant gunfire was always enough to get me going again.
I'd only ever been to Darling Harbor a couple of times. It's a long, thin bay that cuts right into the middle of Sydney. Apparently it used to be a really industrial part of the city but over the past few decades it had been transformed into an entertainment hub. Nowadays the bay was full of million dollar, luxury boats and super yachts. I remember when I first moved out here, Jack and Maria were showing me all the sights.
We spent a whole day walking around Darling Harbor. There was a long footbridge that connected one side of the harbor to the other so people could walk across easily. It was a popular spot to stop and take photos. The whole place had a real festival atmosphere. There were pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and a casino. Jack pretended to be a tour guide when they took me that first time. He had a whistle that he blew whenever it was time to move on to the next place and a little flag that he would hold up so we could see him in the crowd. We even had a couple of German tourists following us around at one point.
As we swam into the bay I couldn't get over how dead it was. It was strange seeing the place so empty. The boats were still there but the people and the festival atmosphere were gone.
"Let’s go for that catamaran
," Jack said. "It’s looks big enough to hide all of us and there’s probably even some food and water on board."
We swam towards the catamaran. It was definitely big enough to hide all five of us. Probably could’ve held a lot more. But I was glad someone had suggested we hide on this boat. I really didn’t feel like I could swim any further. We could’ve spent another half an hour swimming around picking out the right boat to hide on. But this one would do nicely especially since it was the closest and had two very convenient ladders at the back of the boat to climb up. I was glad for Jack’s decisiveness.
One by one we snuck on like stowaways. At the rear of the boat was a huge area with at least a dozen sun chairs and a couple of tables and lounges. There was even an outside bar and a Jacuzzi. We headed for the door to the main cabin area which was at least twice the size of my living room at home. We needed to get inside because even though we were out of the water, we knew we wouldn’t be safe until we were hidden from view. We inched forward. No one had actually said be quiet but we were all being ultra careful, like mice being hunted by circling hawks.
Kenji tried the handle but the door was locked. He took a step back and planted a powerful kick into the door with his heavy army boots. The resulting noise sounded like the loudest thing in the world and we all ducked instinctively. Surely someone had heard that.
"Not so freakin loud!" Kim whispered.
"Sorry. But I think I’ve almost got it."
Kenji took a step back, preparing for another kick. I crouched down and covered my ears. Kenji launched his foot and his whole body at the door and broke through falling over and head first into the room.
"Far out," Maria said. "I think they heard that on the other side of the country."
We all rushed inside. Jack grabbed the broken door that had fallen off its hinges and propped it up. It was crooked but hopefully if someone was passing by and had a quick look they wouldn’t notice it.
