by James Harden
I managed to survive the initial explosion somehow. I landed ass first in the water below. I swam and struggled to the surface. But even when I broke the surface, I couldn’t breathe. I looked around for Kenji but I couldn’t see him, I looked for Jack, for Maria, for Kim but they were nowhere to be seen. I started to drown. I reached for something to hold on to. Anything. My hands found something soft, something floating in the water. It was a body. A human body. But I held on to it for dear life. I got my senses and my bearings. High above me, the search and destroy helicopters continued to search and destroy. I tried to swim away but I couldn’t move. I was trapped, surrounded by thousands of floating corpses. I was the only one alive. I was alone.
I woke slowly. I was sore and my limbs were stiff.
Kim was shaking me. "Wake up, Rebecca," she said urgently.
I could hear laughter.
"Huh? What is it?"
"It's Kenji. He's not back yet."
The others were sitting around the small table in the corner of the room. They were laughing and eating some cereal.
"You haven't told them yet?" I asked Kim.
"I didn't know what to say," she whispered. "I told them he went to get water."
"Rise and shine sleepy head," Maria teased.
"Why did you sleep on the floor?" Jack asked. "Did Maria sleep walk over to your bed and kick you out? She tends to do that sometimes."
"I do not!"
"Yeah you do. And you snore."
Maria leant over the table and punched Jack on the arm.
"Hey, shouldn’t Kenji be back by now?" Maria asked. "I know he's a big bad soldier and can probably take care of himself. But I still don't like the idea of people just going off by themselves without consulting the group first, you know?"
I sat on the edge of the bed gingerly, regretting my decision to sleep on the floor. "There's something I need to tell you guys," I said. "Last night, I... I left the room. I went up to the penthouse floor."
Maria almost choked on some cereal. "You what? You snuck out by yourself?"
"Yeah. I know it was stupid."
"Really stupid!" Jack added. "And not to mention dangerous."
Maria wiped some milk of her chin. "So why did you do it?" She had a look on her face like she was hurt, like I had betrayed her trust.
"I couldn't sleep," I said. "I just wanted to see the harbor. I wanted to see the bridge. To see if it was really gone."
Jack looked like he was going to yell at me but I was saved from another verbal assault by Kenji who walked into the room with the crazy Doctor. Kenji had the Doctor's hands tied together with electrical tape. I guess he was our prisoner now.
"Who the hell is this," Kim asked.
"This is Doctor West," answered Kenji as he pushed the Doctor into the far corner of the room. "Stay there. Don’t move." he said.
"Where did you find him?"
"Rebecca found him last night, upstairs."
"And why do you have his hands tied?"
"Well, he’s saying some pretty crazy stuff."
Doctor West was standing in corner quietly. He didn’t seem to mind that we were talking about him or that he had his hands tied or that he had a shotgun pointed at his head.
"Like what?" Kim demanded.
"Like he created the Oz Virus."
The room fell silent. Jack and Maria had completely stopped eating. One of them dropped their spoon and it clanged loudly on the wooden table.
"How do we know he’s telling the truth?" Kim asked.
"I wish I wasn’t telling the truth," Doctor West said. "I wish I was lying. But I doubt even the most insane person could ever imagine a vision such as this."
He looked different in the light, slightly older, less intimidating. Maybe it’s because I was surrounded by my friends and he was tied up. Or maybe it’s because he wasn’t playing with matches.
"We started out with a simple ideal." he continued. "We wanted to save lives. That's how we justified it. After the first gulf war we began research on a new type of weapon. A virus."
"You wanted to use a virus as a weapon?" Jack asked. "Why would you do that when you’ve got guns and missiles and tanks?"
"Simple. Once we had a virus we could use as a weapon we could unleash it on an enemy population and destroy it, minimizing collateral damage, minimizing civilian casualties. Imagine sending the virus into the Afghan mountains, the war against Al Qaeda would be over by now. No need for bunker busting missiles, no need for drawn out conflicts that cost lives and money. Wouldn’t matter where the enemy was hiding, the virus would find them. It would kill them just as sure as a bullet to the head would kill them. You infect one enemy soldier, release him, and send him home. He infects the rest. War over."
"How would you control the virus?" Kim asked.
"It was only ever intended to be used in remote locations. That's why we chose Australia as a testing site. But we didn’t know it would spread so quickly. We didn’t know it would be like this. Right from day one there were problems. The results weren't what we wanted."
He lowered his head. I think he even started to cry at that point. He wiped his eye. "I'm not sure who made the call. It came from the top, it was completely classified information. They wouldn't even tell me and I was supposedly in charge."
"What call?" I asked. "What happened?"
"We started conducting viral experiments on people."
"God, you sound like Doctor Hunter." I said as I shivered when I mentioned his name.
He paused, like he was remembering an old friend he used to know. "Doctor Hunter was a brilliant man. An excellent surgeon. But in some ways I think he was the first to be corrupted. Not that I was any different in the end. But he was the strongest advocate to test on humans. He said it was essential for the validity of the results. He said it would speed up the research; move us closer to our goal. It was how we always justified it."
"So wait a minute," Kim said. "You actually tested on people?"
Doctor West nodded his head. A single tear streaked down his cheek. "We tested on illegal immigrants, people smugglers and even refugees. The reason? These people didn’t exist, no one would miss them. We had an endless supply of test subjects. It was as perfect as it was evil. The Woomera Immigration Centre was an ideal test site. It was out of the way, isolated."
"So you tested on people knowing they would die?" Kim asked angrily.
"No. At first we would give them an injection and monitor their symptoms. If their health began to decline, we would give them the anti-virus immediately. Those poor people, they really had no idea what was happening to them, they just thought we were giving them their immunization shots. They never complained. Not once."
"But let me guess?" Jack said. "Something bad happened?"
"We lost control. The virus changed and mutated into something none of us had ever seen. It would cause death minutes after infection. The anti-virus stopped working. We immediately stopped all testing and reported our findings. To our surprise we were given more funding. Lots more. I had never seen so many zero's in my bank account."
"So you did it for money?"
"I don't know why I did it. Maybe it was the money. Maybe because I thought we’d be heroes."
Heroes? I hoped from the bottom of my heart that I would never become so deluded.
"We recommenced our research and the initial tests were promising. The virus we'd created was perfect. At least that’s what we thought. It was quick, efficient and one hundred percent effective. But in terms of a virus, it was not perfect at all. It was too aggressive. In order for a virus to spread between hosts, it needs time. It has to survive long enough, and the host has to survive long enough to pass it on to the next person. We were trying to figure out how to make the virus less deadly. And the damn thing mutated again. It changed quicker than we could keep track of it. It developed a survival mechanism. It still killed its host, completely overwhelmed their immune system, but it would also keep that host functioning on
some base level. Then the host would work for the virus.
"When the anti-virus stopped working we set up quarantine areas. It started out as just one room but then we had to close off and barricade whole buildings. Two days later we had to quarantine the whole area and the surrounding town.
"Once we lost control at the immigration centre the military started shipping out equipment and personnel. There’s an airbase just north of Sydney. They sent everything there. Not just the research scientists either. I’m talking samples, patients, and test subjects. I’m not sure what happened. But I guess because it wasn’t properly planned or they hadn't trained for it, something went wrong. The virus got out. It spread through the surrounding towns. And it spread quickly. Soon it was moving towards Sydney. Just yesterday it reached the outskirts and once it hit the high population areas of North Sydney, it started moving even quicker. It was like fuel for a fire. The smart people headed west, to the less populated areas but everyone else listened to the military and the message that all the news stations were broadcasting."
Of course the majority of people would listen to the news, I thought. That’s what they do every day.
"The bridge became a choke point," Doctor West continued. "The military had forced everyone out of their cars to walk through the testing gates. But once the horde of infected got too close. They panicked. Again they hadn’t planned for this scenario. They still had a lot of important personnel docked in the USS Washington just on the other side of the harbor. And a whole lot more at Sydney airport ready for extraction. The virus was moving too fast for them. If they blew up the bridge it would give them more time. It would save lives.
"So the order was given. They set the fuses on the bridge and retreated. They sent in the F22’s and the Apaches and blew it sky high."
"They blew it up to save lives? It was a massacre out there! It's a miracle we're alive!" Kim shouted.
"It is indeed." Doctor West replied. "I was completely shocked that you people had made it this far. But I’m not sure how much longer you can survive. Especially in the heart of the city."
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
"It means the military will shoot anything that moves at the moment as part of their containment protocol. But that’s not really your biggest concern. Your biggest concern is the infected. Pretty soon you will have a few million hosts rampaging through the city, spreading the infection with single minded aggression."
"But we haven’t seen any signs of the infection on this side of harbor."
"Not yet. That’s why the military did what they did. They were just buying time. But the virus is designed to find life. It won’t be long now."
The doctor’s warning was blood chilling.
"We need to secure the rest of this building," Kenji said. "If we secure it well enough, maybe we can ride it out here for awhile, maybe long enough to wait for a rescue."
"That could take weeks! Or months!" Kim said. "Plus we don’t know if there’ll even be a rescue. Remember the quarantine? Remember they shut down communication networks? We don’t know if the outside world even knows what’s happening."
Kim was making valid points but they were all so depressing.
"What about our plan to go west," I said. "If the virus is designed to find life, then we should go where there is no life. We should get as far away from the city as possible."
"I agree," Kenji said. "But it’s not just the military forces we have to worry about. We have to secure this place so the infection can’t get in. It’ll be a lot safer in here once we do that. Once we're certain it's secure then we can start gathering supplies and make sure we have enough food and water. I still think swimming out west, as crazy as it sounds, is out best option. But we need to prepare ourselves."
Jack stood up and clapped his hands together. "Let’s get to it. If this virus is spreading as fast as everyone says it is, I don’t want to be anywhere near it."
"You better hurry," Doctor West said. "You don’t have long."
Chapter 31
We made our way down to the security room to check the cameras and the blue print of the building one more time. But we couldn’t turn the computers on. It looked like the whole security system had shut down.
"This doesn’t change anything," Kenji said. "We’ll start with the other floors of the hotel."
"What about him," I asked about the Doctor.
"Leave him here for the moment. We’ll tie him to the desk. No offence," Kenji said to Doctor West.
"None taken. This room is as safe as any."
I didn’t know if he meant it was completely safe or if he meant that it wasn’t safe at all, that no matter how well we checked each floor, no matter how well we secured the building that it would never be safe. Maria was right when she said we had to stay positive. Thinking the worse will drive you insane.
"We should split up into two groups," Kim said as she checked the ammunition clip of the handgun.
I did a double take. "Excuse me? I thought you were against splitting up?"
"I was. But it’s the only way we’re going to get through this as quickly as possible."
"I agree," Kenji said. "Jack and Maria, you go with Kim. Rebecca you come with me."
Maria had a worried look on her face. "Are you sure it’s necessary? I really, really don’t like the idea of splitting up."
I knew what she meant. We had survived so much together in such a short time. We were sort of relying on each other to get through this. I can’t speak for the others but I know for certain that I wouldn’t have survived without them. Facing the prospect of splitting up was enough to make me anxious.
"We have no choice," Kim assured her. "I don’t like it either but we need to do this as fast as we can."
"Rebecca and I will go to the top floors and work our way down," Kenji said. "If there are any snipers or scouts, they’ll be on the roof. I’ll check that out first. Then we’ll work our way down. You guys start at the bottom and work your way up. We’ll meet in the middle."
"Make sure you check each room thoroughly," Kim said. "Check the bathroom, the cupboards, under the bed. Everything."
Maria still wasn’t happy with our plan. "What if something goes wrong?" she asked. "What if we find someone, or something?"
"If something goes wrong we can use these walkie talkies to call for help. They’re probably not very good but they’re better than nothing."
"Should we have a codeword for an emergency," Jack suggested.
"Like what?" I asked.
"How about, mayday?"
Kenji shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah works for me. But if you do use them try not to stay on for too long. Just in case the military are listening. They probably won’t be listening but you never know. But if radios don’t work or if we’re out of range or you can’t get us for whatever reason, retreat back to this floor. At least we know it’s secure. Don’t be a hero. If you come across any infected people, try to isolate them or lock them in a room."
I was suddenly reminded of the doctor we left handcuffed to the morgue fridges. I wondered if he was dead.
"If in doubt, bail out.’ Maria said.
"What if we come across any soldiers?" I asked.
"If you come across any soldiers surrender immediately."
"What?" We all asked at once.
"Do not even attempt to engage. You won’t last a second."
I couldn’t believe what he was saying. It was like he was still brain washed. Even after everything he had seen yesterday. After everything he had lived through over the last two weeks. "Surrender? Did you suddenly develop a case of amnesia? You saw what they did out there. No way am I surrendering." I said.
"If you surrender and explain your situation, explain to them clearly that you are not infected. Everything will be fine," Kenji tried to explain. "If you don't surrender they'll shoot to kill."
I didn’t believe him. Not about the shooting to kill part, that I did believe. But about the part where if we explain to
them our situation and surrender, everything will be fine. I didn’t believe that at all. No one else did and I could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn’t believe himself either.
We looked at each other then, it was almost like an unspoken agreement. If we see any soldiers, run. Run as fast as you could, run like you were about to be shot. Because the reality was, you were probably about to get shot.
"OK, everyone ready?" Kim asked.
We all nodded our heads. There was no enthusiastic ‘hell yeah! Let’s do this!’ But I think we were as ready as we could’ve been.
Kenji and I began our climb to the top floor. It didn’t take long for my legs to start burning. Kenji powered on without complaint.
"How do you stay so fit?" I asked him between deep breaths.
"You have to stay strong," he said. "If you’re not strong, you’re dead."
I saw his point. I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn’t the same person I used to know. I’m sure underneath the uniform and all the training he was still the great guy I sort of fell in love with. But he had this whole other life that I didn’t know anything about.
"What was it like out there?" I asked in an attempt to bridge the gap. "On the front line?"
"Sometimes it was all right," he said. "Sometimes it was lonely. And other times it was hell. "
"So why did you do it?"
"My father always wanted me to become this great warrior. He would always go on and on about how our ancestors were these famous Samurai and about how he served in World War Two. That’s why he sent me to military school. It was the first step. I was mad at him because he didn’t even consult with me. He just went ahead and signed me up. Part of the reason I ran away from school and joined the Marines was to get back at him. Part of the reason was because I wanted to see if I could do it, to see if I had that warrior’s blood in me. I didn’t want to drag you into any of it. I was just so lost and angry. I wasn’t thinking straight."
"You could’ve told me."
He stopped climbing the steps. He pulled out a letter from his top pocket and handed it to me. "I wrote this the day I left. I don’t know why I never gave it to you. I keep it in my pocket all the time. Everywhere I go. So you’re with me. Right next to me heart. I didn’t know how to tell you so I wrote it down."
