by James Harden
I shook my head. I didn’t know whether to tell him that Maria was immune. Would it make any difference? His mind seemed to be made up. But like he said, I was desperate. I had come this far.
“She’s immune,” I said. “To the Oz virus.”
“So the rumors are true?”
“What rumors?”
“Rumors floating around this place. A young girl. An angel. Immune to the Oz virus. A living, breathing miracle. A savior. A cure.”
“Yeah, it’s all true,” I said. “She was bitten. Back in Sydney. She didn’t die. She didn’t turn into a monster. She survived.”
“You have come all the way from Sydney?”
“Yes. We were trying to get her to safety, trying to get her out of the country.”
“We?”
“My friends. We were travelling in a group. We were strong as a group. We had two soldiers with us. We were so close to getting out of here.”
“But fate has brought you back. It has brought you down here. I wonder why?”
“We had no choice. Our friends, some of our group, they were captured.”
“That is beside the point. If she is indeed immune to the Oz virus, you should’ve stayed away from this place. Once we were cut off from the rest of the world, the walls of solid rock began closing in. The desert consumed the General and his soldiers. It changed them. The pressure of containing this virus, the burden of all the lives that have been lost. The isolation. In a matter of days, weeks, months, this place became their prison. It became a literal, physical hell. A prison of their minds and their bodies. And their very souls.”
He was right. Of course he was right. Any rational person knew that Maria needed to be evacuated. She needed to be wrapped in a bubble, kept out of harm’s way. But how? What the hell was I supposed to do? Leave my friends?
Leave Jack?
Leave Kenji?
Abandon Kim?
Abandon everyone?
I didn’t have the strength to make that call.
And neither did Maria.
Call us selfish. Call us whatever you want.
But we couldn’t just leave.
“You had hope,” the man continued. “Hope that your friends are alive. Hope that you would find something down here worth fighting for. Worth dying for. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I am sorry to inform you…”
“What? Inform me what?”
“That you should abandon hope.”
I shook my head. “No. They are down here. I know they are. I can’t just leave them. It was Maria’s idea. She didn’t want to leave either. We had no way out of the country anyway. We were stuck. We were screwed. This was our only choice! You need to help us. You need to take us to…”
“To where?” he asked, cutting me off. “There is nowhere left. Nowhere I can take you. This boat is your last refuge. The military area is in Lockdown mode. No one gets in. The residential area is in Lockdown. It is off limits now. I’m not sure how many civilians we lost. But trust me. It was bad. It was a killing field. A massacre.”
“They killed the civilians?”
“Yes. Such a cruel twist of fate. They were lucky to have survived the fire of the Oz virus. Survived the panic. They made it here. And then just like that, their fate was decided. There was some debate about how useful the civilians were being. Were they just a drain on our resources? Some were proving to be quite useful. Such as the big man. Some of the other scavengers were a great asset to us and the General as well. They could bring in all manner of supplies. But now they are all gone.”
“How did you know he was a scavenger?”
“I saw the mark on his wrist. And I remember hearing stories about a gladiator. Who else could it be?”
“A gladiator?”
“Yes. A true warrior. Like I said, some of the scavengers were useful. He was one of them. But the others? The General was convinced they were just a drain on resources.”
“A drain on resources? What are you talking about? How can you talk like that? How can you say that?”
He took a deep breath. “This is the way of the world now. Down here, everything is limited. If someone is not contributing to the ecosystem, to this new society, they have no purpose. They cannot be allowed to remain, to exist. There was an outbreak in the residential sector. Nobody knows how the virus got in. But it did. General Spears ordered the Lockdown immediately. The Fortress is now essentially isolated and cut off from the outside world. Life support systems have been prioritized.”
“Prioritized? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means all non-essential systems have been shut down. Power is reserved for the military sectors only.”
“So the civilians, the survivors? They just cut them off? Turned off their power?”
“I was fortunate enough to have survived. I was lucky that I had access to this boat. I have food supplies. Enough to last quite a while. And of course I can always supplement my supplies. But yes, because of the Code Black, the outbreak, because the General ordered the Lockdown, he has sentenced us all to a slow death.”
“This changes nothing,” I said. “I still need to get Maria to safety. I still need to find my friends.”
“It is a bad idea,” he repeated. “I cannot be certain, but there is talk that the General will not wait for hunger and dehydration. There are rumors that he will open the residential area. And the prison. Let the infected roam this Fortress. Let the virus eliminate the few remaining survivors.”
“Prison?” I asked. “Excuse me?
“There is a prison down here. This place, this entire facility was designed to be self-sufficient. It is essentially an underground bio-sphere. It was designed to be a microcosm of society, of the world and the environment. This water is the fuel source. It is an underground lake. The biggest of its kind in the world. With this lake, we can create power, oxygen. We have farms. We can grow crops. Food. We can be self-sustainable. Well, we could’ve. Not anymore.”
“You have farms down here?”
“Yes.”
“So if you have an underground water source, and farms and crops, why the need for scavengers? Why has the Lockdown condemned everyone to death?”
“The Lockdown procedure killed all these processes. Like I said, all power is now prioritized and reserved for the military sectors. And with no one to tend to the farms, they will die. The crops won’t get planted, they won’t be harvested. The cycle cannot continue. Eventually the food supply will run out. Eventually we will all starve.”
“I don’t intend on staying here until I starve. I don’t intend on dying down here. I need to get to the General. I need to get my friends. You have to help me. Please. You have to take me to the military head quarters.”
The old man lowered his head and thought about his options. “I can take you to the docks at the research facility. It should be the least dangerous place, the least infested. They had security measures. But still, my advice, stay on the boat. Never get off the boat.”
“I don’t have a choice. I need to do this.”
“Very well. I can take you there. I’ll take you to the docks. But first, you need to eat. Trust me, you will need your strength.”
Chapter 30
Maria woke up a few minutes after I did. She was even more disorientated. Her shoulder hurt like crazy. She felt sick from the pain. She must’ve hit the water extremely hard for her shoulder to have been dislocated while she was wearing the NBC suit. I kind of felt bad for pushing her out of the train.
Maria had taken the protective suit off. It was hanging over the side of the boat, drying out like a wet suit.
The old man led us into the dining room area. We sat around a small dinner table and he handed us some small sealed foil bags.
“You girls need to eat up. You’re both way too thin.”
“We haven’t had much food over the past couple of months,” I said.
“What are these?” Maria asked.
“MRE’s. Meals Ready
to Eat. Courtesy of the military. Enjoy them. They are our last.”
“Your last ones?” I said. “We can’t take these.”
“You can. You need to eat.”
Even as hungry as we were, the MRE’s were hard to eat. Especially cold. “Wow, these are not the best,” I said, reading the ingredients list on the side of the packet.
Apparently I was eating spaghetti bolognaise.
“What did you get?” I asked Maria.
“Mushroom risotto. I think. What did you get?”
“Cold spaghetti bolognaise.”
Maria then started singing a song. It was called ‘Cold Spaghetti’. Apparently it was a ‘Wiggles’ song.
“What are you singing?” I asked.
“It’s a Wiggles song,” Maria answered. “You know, cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti. No?”
“No. I’ve never heard that one.”
“You missed out.”
“Singing is good for the soul,” the old man said. “You should sing every day. As much as you can.”
“So what’s your name?” I asked.
“Charles,” he answered as he retrieved a large bottle of Rum from one of the many cupboards in the dining area. He took a long swig, spilling some down his chin.
“Nice to meet you, Charles.”
“Nice to meet you too,” he replied.
“And thanks for saving us,” Maria said. “We owe you big time.”
He waved us off. “Think nothing of it. I was just doing what anyone would’ve done. And besides, you girls were fine. But the man, he was in trouble.”
“Well, we’re glad you saved him too,” I said. “He means a lot to us.”
Charles was quiet for a few minutes after that. He took another swig of rum. His shoulders were hunched forward. His eyes were starting to glaze over. He stroked his beard.
After awhile he said, “I remember the big man. He lived down here. He was a scavenger. He was highly regarded amongst the soldiers and the civilians. Not as a leader or anything like that. But just as a pillar of strength. I guess it’s not hard to see why. He is an intimidating person.”
“Where is Ben?” Maria asked. “Can we see him?”
“He is below deck. But you cannot see him. Not until he has regained his strength. Not until the blood transfusion is complete. It is good for the muscles. Good to keep everything fresh.”
“How do you know how to do that? Are you a doctor?”
“No. I've had help. A teacher. He has lost the ability to practice his profession. So now he teaches me. His body is failing him. But his mind is sharp. We help each other. When the General ordered the Lockdown, he ordered the deaths of all non-essential personnel. I was forced to hide. I ran. I took this boat to the darkest corner of the lake. And I hid. I kept quiet. Luckily, with this boat, I am a king. Water is used as both protection and a source of life. It gives us power. Feeds us. Protects us. You need water. But we are stuck. We can't get out. We can't leave. So we live on the boat. Like I told you, don’t ever get off the boat.”
He took another long swig of his rum.
Both Maria and I had stopped eating.
“What happened down here?” Maria asked.
“Chaos happened. Evil. The General was forced to be ruthless. Like I said, when the General ordered the Lockdown, he ordered the deaths of all non-essential personnel. Civilians. He killed them all. It was cold blooded, methodical. Calculated. First, he herded all those people from the residential area into the storage warehouses. There they remained for days with no explanation. No food. No water. And when all those people became angry and outraged, starving and desperate, they tried to storm the blast doors. It was useless. They were dead from the moment the General had locked them up. He could’ve let them starve. I don’t know why he didn’t. Maybe he was being merciful. Finally, the General opened the blast doors. Some people thought we had been saved. That sanity had prevailed.”
“Wait, you were there?”
He took another drink of rum and began tearing the label off the bottle. “Yes. I was considered non-essential. I was expendable. And I knew what the General and his men were going to do. I think a lot of us knew. Some were already walking back from the doors. Yes. They knew. I don't know how they knew, but they knew. The General and his men were waiting for us on the other side of those doors. They were heavily armed. Bullets tore through the crowd of people. It was a killing field.”
“Why?” Maria asked. “Why did they do it? Why kill all those people?”
“Simple. They didn't want us eating their food. They didn’t want us turning into infected monsters. As far as they were concerned, we were a drain on their resources, we were fuel for the virus. We represented a threat to their survival. So we had to be dealt with.”
“How many people?” I asked.
“Hundreds.”
“How did you survive?”
“I hid behind a body. A pile of bodies. I used the dead as a shield for the bullets. I hid there all night. I didn’t dare move. For as long as I live I will never forget the sound of bullets tearing into those dead bodies. When they were finished they sealed the doors up. They got the hell out.”
“So how did you get out?”
“I was lucky. There was a man, a strong man. The community, everyone down here looked up to him. He was fearless, or at least he gave the impression that he was fearless. So yes, we looked up to him. He gave us strength. And hope. When the machine gun fire had stopped and the General’s men had cleared out, I found him. He was lying on a pile of bodies. He had so many holes. So many bullet wounds. There was so much blood. Yet he was still alive. I couldn’t believe it. I stayed with him. I didn’t know what else to do. He told me not to worry. He had this weird calming effect on me. He said that the virus had been released; he said that it had gone airborne. He said it was better this way. A few hours later, a military research team came back. For specimens and test subjects and god knows what else. They moved through the piles of dead like vultures. Taking what they wanted.
“I managed to sneak through the blast doors. I escaped with the man. I carried him out. By this time, he was barely alive. I dragged him to this boat. I picked the bullets out. One by one. So many bullets. He had died long before I got them all out. And by then, he no longer resembled a man. He was just a piece of meat. And yet still, in death, he gave me strength and hope. Don't you see? The great ones. Even in death, they give us strength and hope and courage.”
Hearing the story about the massacre and the execution had crushed what little hope Maria and I had for finding our friends alive. How could anyone survive something like that? Maria had lost her appetite completely. She was obviously thinking about Jack. Had he been executed? Had he been deemed ‘non-essential’? Had he been shot in the back with a machine gun and left to rot?
What about Kim? Or Kenji?
How many people were left alive down here?
“Where is Ben?” I asked.
“He is below deck. He is resting. Hopefully tomorrow you can see him. In the meantime, we all need rest.”
He showed us to a small bedroom below deck. There were two narrow bunk beds built into the wall. I took the bottom bunk. Maria took the top bunk.
“Rest,” the old man said. “Tomorrow we will reach the docks.”
Chapter 31
There wasn’t much else to do so we slept. Not surprisingly, we were both asleep within minutes. We were both sleep deprived and we hadn’t slept in an actual bed since we spent the night in the farmhouse.
It was heaven.
But unfortunately, I did not get to sleep for long. Sometime during the night, the noise of the boat’s engine woke me up. The engine was working overtime.
A few minutes later, I thought I could hear two men speaking.
Two men.
Who?
Was it Ben?
I sat up and moved over to the door. I reached out for the handle. It did not turn. The door was locked. I held my breath. Alarm bells began to
ring inside my head. Why did he lock the door? What the hell was going on? As far as I was concerned, this could only mean one thing.
We were prisoners.
I clenched my fists.
I wanted to punch through the door. I wanted to walk up there and demand an explanation.
“This can’t be happening,” I whispered. “Not again. Not now.”
I moved over to Maria. “Psst. Maria.”
No response. I shook her arm. “Wake up.”
She blinked her eyes open. “Huh? What’s going on?”
“We’re trapped. The son of a bitch has locked us in here.”
She was still half asleep, still groggy. “Maybe he did it as a precaution. Remember what he said about the soldiers? And the General?”
“No. This is bad news. Being locked up means we’re prisoners.” I walked back over to the door. “Come over here. Listen. There are two men talking. It’s the old man and someone else.”
“Is it Ben?” she asked.
“I don’t think so.”
We put our ears up against the door and listened.
“Can you hear them?” I asked.
“Yeah. I hear them.”
Two men. They were saying awful, violent things. Things about the General. More rumors.
“We are running low on food,” the old man said. “Running low on potentials.”
“We can use the brunette, but the blonde is too valuable. She needs to be secured. The General will have to let us back into his circle now. He will let us live.”
The voices trailed off. We could no longer hear them.
Suddenly the boat accelerated. The engine roared. We were nearly thrown off our feet. The boat was now moving very fast.
“What the hell are they talking about?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “They said they wanted to hand you over to the General.”
“I’m not entirely sure I want to be handed over to the General,” Maria said. “It sounds like he’s lost his goddamn mind. There’s no guarantee that he even wants to make an anti-virus.”
Maria was right. If we delivered her to the General, what’s stopping him from killing her like he’s killed everyone else? Did he even want to make an anti-virus? Did he want to stop the plague? Or had he lost his mind? Was he too far gone?
