by James Harden
There’s no time to stop running. Not now. Stopping now would mean certain death.
How did I get to this point? How did I get here?
Does everything happen for a reason? Is this fate?
I thought it was. And I hope it is.
Being sent to military school. Running away. Joining the marines.
Being re-deployed in Australia.
The Oz virus.
I guess it’s lucky my skills were honed. I can kill a man from two miles away. This gruesome skill has come in unbelievably handy these past couple of months. This skill has no doubt saved my life.
So I try and convince myself that I’ve done the right thing.
Fate and the choices we make.
When I made the decision to leave my post, to flee from the operation in Woomera, it was because I genuinely believed the military had last control. Command had begun ordering the deaths of the town’s people and the refugees. Shoot to kill were our orders. Air strikes. Nuclear strikes. It was bad. And I wanted nothing to do with it. The only thing I wanted to do was warn Rebecca about the plague.
That was my only goal.
And I think I accomplished that.
I found Rebecca. I warned her. She got out of the city before it was too late.
Job done.
So how did I end up here? How did I end up trapped in the city with Jack and Maria?
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure.
Maybe it was pure luck.
Maybe it was fate.
Maybe it was Jack’s strength.
Maria’s strength.
They’re asleep now. It’s a deep sleep that can only be brought on by absolute exhaustion. They are sleeping in each other’s arms. A tight embrace. A lover’s embrace.
I look out over the dark Sydney skyline. I can see the skeleton of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Smoke that is darker than the silvery moon light billows up to the starry heavens. Orange spot fires that are the devil’s eyes populate the city. Looking at me. Watching.
I scribble in this notepad.
It gives me strength
Feb 8th - Darling Harbor
Two days ago I was stranded and trapped and surrounded and alone in Darling Harbor. The harbor was a picture of chaos. It was the definition of chaos. And I kept telling myself I did the right thing.
“I did the right thing.”
Staying behind on the jetty while Jack, Rebecca and Kim made their escape in the speed boat. Providing a suppressive cover fire. This was the right thing to do. The only thing I could’ve done.
Yeah.
I did the right thing. They would’ve been killed otherwise. Their boat would’ve been shot to pieces.
They would’ve been shot to pieces.
I kept telling myself I did the right thing. I had to make sure they got away clean.
“I did the right thing.”
I mean, what was the alternative? The pursuing soldiers had the high ground, the numbers, the fire power. They would’ve been torn to shreds. It would’ve been a bloodbath.
“I did the right thing.”
Why does doing the right thing suck most of the time?
And Rebecca.
I couldn’t get the look on Rebecca’s face out of my mind. Her face. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. She has never considered herself attractive but goddamn it, she is. She’s beautiful. She has these big chestnut brown eyes. Wide like saucers. It’s like she has this constant inquisitive look about her, like she is always studying everything around her. Taking everything in. Reading you and your thoughts.
You could lose yourself in those eyes for hours. Days.
I should know.
Her lips. Her smile. They way she played with her hair when she was nervous.
Everything about her.
All of this. I can’t get her out of my head. I should’ve been focused on staying alive. I should’ve been focused on the soldiers closing in on me. I should’ve been watching out for the infected. But at that moment I was thinking about Rebecca.
A volley of bullets whizzed over my head and smashed into the wooden jetty I was crouched on. More bullets smashed into the surrounding boats. All of the boats were completely wrecked. They had been destroyed by a missile strike the day before. A missile strike that was part of the military’s containment protocol.
Yeah, I should’ve been focused. I should’ve been taking aim, returning fire. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Rebecca’s face. It was scrunched up in pain and anguish - it was the realization that I wasn’t coming with them.
Her voice.
She screamed at me. Swore at me and cursed me. She was about to jump overboard. But Jack stopped her at the last second. He wrestled with her. Overpowered her.
I continued to provide cover fire as they made their escape.
I told myself it was the only way.
“It was the only way.”
I tell myself I did the right thing.
Surrounded
The cold, hard reality is that Jack, Kim, and Rebecca may very well have been blown to bits as they made their escape. It would only take one gunship, just one Apache attack chopper in the area. Or F22 or A10 bomber.
Just one.
And it would be all over for them. But I convinced myself they’d made it. I convinced myself they were too fast to track. I convinced myself they were long gone, that they’d made it to the open waters. Safe from the military and the containment protocol. And the infected.
The boat they had found was fast. In a matter of seconds it was out of Darling Harbor. Out of sight and harm’s way.
I forced myself to focus on my surroundings. Concentrate.
Live.
I wiped a tear from my face and got back to the business of staying alive. The men in black were closing in on my position, flanking me. These soldiers were probably Special Forces, like Navy Seals or British SAS. Some of the weapons and rifles they were using I didn’t recognize at all. Their black suits looked different. Way more advanced than anything I’d come across in my limited time in the armed forces.
And they had me surrounded.
My mind was working at the speed of light, trying to figure a way out of this situation. I needed to get off the jetty and the marina. Get out of the harbor. Find a place to hide. My mind was working through any and all possibilities.
It took me a second to realize there was a voice shouting at me.
Yelling and cursing me.
Like Rebecca did.
It took me another second to realize this voice was in my head. The voice was my own.
Rebecca once told me that after her father disappeared, she started hearing this voice in her head. The voice would speak to her, clear as day, as if someone was standing right next to her, speaking into her ear. She said it was the voice of fear and self doubt. She said she had never told anyone about that voice. Not even her mother. I don’t know why she chose to tell me. But I have a bad feeling that I am starting to hear a similar voice.
The voice spoke to me as I was huddled behind the wreckage of a luxury yacht, on the jetty in Darling Harbor. The voice told me I was done for.
It asked me, “How the hell are you gonna get out of this?”
“You’re out numbered. Out gunned.”
“They’ve got the high ground.”
“The infected are coming.”
“You can’t fight a war on two fronts.”
“Not you.”
“Not with one rifle.”
“Two magazines.”
“Sixty bullets.”
“You’re a dead man.”
I shook my head. Slapped my face.
It was time to focus on staying alive.
The men in black were closing in on both sides. Squeezing me in. These guys were good. Methodical. They were closing in fast. I was running out of options and out of time. I had two points of cover within crawling distance of each other. From these two positions I could cover the soldiers making their way across t
he Darling Harbor footbridge and the two soldiers who had made it across the bridge. They were to the right of my position. Getting closer. They were my priority. I had to take them out before it was too late. If they got the jump on me, it really would be all over. And if these guys were indeed Special Forces soldiers (which I’m pretty sure they were) it wouldn’t take them long to make their move.
“They train for this type of thing every single day. Over and over. It’s a reflex for these guys. An automatic response. A skill set they’ve developed through countless hours of brutal training exercises.”
“Shut up,” I told the voice in my head. “Focus.”
I had to stop building these guys up in my head. They were only human.
Out of nowhere I remembered a quote from the movie ‘Predator’. “If it bleeds we can kill it.”
So yeah, there were two guys to the right of my position and a whole squad, maybe more to my left, coming over the bridge.
Mission impossible right?
The crazy thing was these guys were probably American. Maybe Australian or British.
Last week we were fighting and serving together. And Now? Now everything was messed up beyond comprehension.
They were following orders and their orders were to enforce the ‘containment protocol’.
Shoot to kill.
I know this because they used to be my orders.
What a difference a week can make.
Another volley of bullets smashed into the jetty. I ducked my head and prepared to return fire. The soldiers on the footbridge were well concealed. The bridge provided excellent cover. It was about as wide as a main road. And it was at least twenty feet above the water. If they made it over to my side, they would eventually overrun my position.
But first things first. I needed to deal with the two soldiers who had made it across the bridge.
I got to my knees, aimed my rifle. I looked for them but I couldn’t see them. They had taken cover. They were hidden. Invisible. They were ghosts. And then from behind a giant slab of concrete that used to be part of a building, something was lobbed in a high, looping arc. Something small and black.
A grenade.
It flew through the air in slow motion.
The word ‘grenade’ was shouted over and over, loud and clear inside my own head. I watched it fly through the air and I knew at once this was no stun grenade. It was a frag grenade. It was designed to inflict bodily damage, serious injury. Death.
The men in black knew I was dug in and they knew I had the ability to shoot. They weren’t messing around any longer. They had taken the initiative. I guess I should’ve expected that.
Meanwhile, everything was still happening in slow motion.
As the grenade hit the peak of its arc, the handle sprang off, spiraling slowly to the ground. At this point I knew the fuse had been ignited. I had a few seconds; maybe less before the damn thing blew up, fragmenting bits of red hot shrapnel in all directions.
The grenade began falling back to earth.
Coming closer.
It landed on the jetty right next to me, bouncing to my feet, rolling around in a small semi-circle before coming to a stop right against my boot.
I was frozen to the spot for second.
One second.
It felt like an eternity.
Everything was still happening in slow motion.
I dived into the nearest boat wreckage. I curled into a ball, and covered my face. Another second passed.
Another lifetime.
And then it erupted.
There was a blinding flash of light. The shockwave pressed into me. The noise destroyed my hearing.
The light, the shockwave, the noise.
Everything happened at once.
The red hot shrapnel smashed into the jetty and the boat. A huge chunk of wood crashed down on top of me.
My world turned dark.
The sound of my own beating heart was the only thing I could hear, the only thing that told me I was still alive.
Chaos
I couldn’t see and I couldn’t hear. I was in bad shape. I needed those two senses if I wanted any hope of staying alive. My heart was still beating like a goddamn jackhammer. Thumping, like the rotor blades of a helicopter. There was a loud ringing in my ears. Almost as loud as my beating heart. I threw the piece of wood off me. Scrambled to my feet. I was so disorientated. I had completely lost my bearings. I had no idea which way I was facing.
Suddenly another explosion erupted in the harbor. A much bigger explosion. I turned around in time to see a section of the footbridge being blown up. Concrete, bitumen and wood flew in all directions, crashing into the water. I was instantly confused.
Had they set charges to blow the footbridge? Why would they do that?
Another explosion erupted way overhead. The side of a building was partially destroyed. Concrete and glass rained down into the marina and the harbor. Then I saw what had caused the explosions. It was the tank. It was over near the casino building.
Slowly I regained my senses. The bridge had taken a direct hit from the tank. The tank was completely covered in the infected. Like ants attacking a larger insect. The driver of the tank was freaking out. You could tell by the way he was driving. Forwards. Reverse. Then forwards again. The main gun swiveled around back and forth. They were trying to shake the infected off but it wasn’t working.
The men in black were losing their ground support.
I could hear the two closest soldiers behind the concrete slab, shouting at each other in confusion. They knew if they lost the tank they were in big trouble.
“What the hell is going on?” one of them shouted. “Where are the goddamn choppers?”
They’re busy elsewhere, I thought. I knew how they felt. I could see the soldiers hesitate. All of a sudden they weren’t firing at me. They weren’t targeting me. They weren’t even looking at me.
The horde.
It was just a few at first.
The tank fired another wayward shot. The shell rocked into the casino building. More concrete and more glass showered the street and the harbor. The tank was slowly moving away. The driver probably had no idea where he was going. It wouldn’t be long until it crashed into the side of the casino building. Maybe even the harbor. The driver should stop. Wait for reinforcements to pick off the infected. He should stay calm.
Easier said than done.
A crowd of infected rushed into the street closest to the harbor.
The men in black opened fire.
I was no longer a priority.
In the confusion, I made my move. I headed for a bigger boat. One of the harbor cruise boats. It had suffered a lot of damage in the missile strike from yesterday and had taken on water. It was listing to one side. I made my way to one of the upper floors, climbing the narrow stairwell. I climbed three floors and crouched under a window so I could keep an eye on everything. I checked my ammo. I had two magazines left.
Sixty bullets.
I peeked out the window. The men in black were getting overrun. I took aim, fired at the infected. And for a few minutes the Special Forces team and I were fighting on the same side. Fighting a common enemy.
I could hear the soldiers screaming though. Confusion and panic spreading through the team like wildfire.
I could hear them on the radio as well. Calling for an extraction. Calling for aerial support.
“Where is the target?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Target is secure,” someone answered.
They were talking about Maria. They came for her. She was their target.
“Get to the extraction point. Now!”
The Special Forces soldiers moved back across the bridge. They were going to try and get to wherever their extraction point was. The problem with their plan was the extraction point was probably crawling with infected.
Suddenly the thumping of rotor blades filled the sky.
A Blackhawk helicopter flew in low over the surrounding b
uildings and set down at the city end of the harbor. A group of men in black were running for their lives towards it. In the middle of the group was Maria. She was protected on all sides by the soldiers.
They carried and hurried her towards the waiting chopper.
Maria was running hunched over. She was not trying to escape. The rest of the soldiers provided cover fire and so did I. If anything was to happen to Maria, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I made the call to leave her. And at that moment I thought she wasn’t going to make it.
“She’s not going to make it.”
They are being chased by hundreds of infected. And for a second I think to myself there is no way.
It’s all my fault.
They are not going to make it.
There’s too many.
Missiles streaked in from high above the city skyline, slamming into the road outside of the casino. The warheads erupted in a wall of fire.
The foundations of the casino building were rocked again and the whole building was partially destroyed. The whole building began to sway.
More missiles.
The force of the warheads pressed into my body. The heat from the explosions burned my face and I had to look away. When I looked back the tank had been completely blown apart. Armored steel and iron had been scattered in all directions, all over the road and the harbor.
The missiles were heavy duty. Tank busting missiles. Hellfire missiles. Hovering above the sky scrapers, out near the main harbor were the gunships.
The Apache helicopters.
Two more hellfire missiles streaked towards the horde of infected, dangerously close to the Blackhawk and Maria. The missiles cleared out a large number of infected. The gunships hovered in closer, using their chain guns to pick off the remaining infected.
The chase was over.
The Apaches fell back in a hurry. They flew up and out of the harbor. Towards the inner city. Their job was not over. Nowhere near over.
The men in black carried Maria into the chopper.
They took off immediately.
