Salvation: Secret Apocalypse Book 5 (A Secret Apocalypse Story)

by James Harden

  I think to myself that I will never see the sun or the moon or the sky again.

  “Who are you?” I ask. “Why are you doing this? What is your name? What is your real goddamn name?”

  Again, I’m not sure why his name matters so much. Maybe it’s because I want to hold him accountable for everything that he’s done. Or maybe it’s because I just want a straight answer. No more lies. No more bullshit.

  “My name does not matter,” he repeats. “I do not matter.”

  I look up at the images. Most of the screens show live feeds from dedicated news channels.

  And the headlines are all the same.

  Outbreak.

  Killer virus spreads.

  Death toll rising.

  Millions dead.

  Whole cities quarantined.

  The dead rise.

  And all the images are the same.

  Cities on fire. Cities burning.

  Militaries trying to contain the virus.

  Militaries killing innocent people.

  Doctor Hunter was right. We were never going to stop it. We never stood a chance.

  “Then why are you doing this?” I ask.

  “You already know the answer to this question. You already know that we can never go back to the way things were. But we can start over. We can have our freedom. A world on fire. We purge. This is how a forest grows.”

  “You can’t do this. You’re talking about genocide. You’re talking about…”

  I trail off because I don’t even know what to call it.

  Mass murder?

  Genocide?

  Mass Genocide?

  He is the creator of an extinction level event.

  “Once upon a time, I was a field surgeon,” he says. “I dealt with death from both sides on a daily basis. This changed me. Irrevocably. And from this perspective I could see clearly. I knew the killing would never end. I knew that we needed to start over. So I created the Oz virus. And I set it loose.”

  I look at the gas mask that is messily stitched into his scalp. I listen to his breathing through the air filters.

  “At first I wanted to kill everyone,” he continues. “I wanted to wipe them out. The history, the wars. Religion. It is all meaningless. But now I see that I am not just killing them. I am setting them free. I am saving them.”

  He is insane and he looks like a monster. He is a monster.

  He is the devil.

  “People will come to understand,” he continues. “Not at first. But slowly, eventually, they will see. This is why Maria can no longer live. Because as long as they believe she can stop the plague, they will never move forward. They will never see the truth.”

  I look at the knife in my hand and all the images from the cinematic screen are being reflected in the blade. “You won’t kill Maria. You can’t kill Maria. You’re dying. You’re weak. I stopped you.”

  He waves his hand at the screen. “Did you?”

  He points to one of the smaller screens. And then this image is enlarged. It is an image of us. It is a live image from one of the security cameras.

  And in this live image is…

  Me with a knife in my hand.

  The man in the gas mask, pointing to the live image.

  Maria, unconscious and hidden.

  And this is repeated. Times infinity.

  “Why are you recording this?” I ask. “Why are you recording your own death? Your plan failed. You don’t get to publicly execute Maria. You don’t get a chance to terrorize the world any more than you already have.”

  “You still cannot see the whole plan. You still cannot see the forest for the trees.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I am not special,” he says. “But my work is. My work is special. And necessary. And you are special. You are the star.”

  “Maria is no longer immune. There’s no point in killing her. She’s not a threat to your new world. She’s not a threat to anyone.”

  “But that is irrelevant. It is irrelevant because they still think she is immune. They still think she is their savior. She still represents hope. Even when millions have already died, they still hope. They have sent countless teams in to rescue her. The military. The company. They have all failed. Yet they keep sending them. Most of them have no idea where Maria is. But they still hope. They still try. Do you not see how desperate and pointless that is?”

  He’s right. I can’t see the whole plan. I can’t see the forest for the trees. I can’t fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

  “What’s your point?” I ask again. “Why are you recording this? You failed!”

  And my watch beeps. I have ten minutes left.

  “I am recording this because people need to know the truth. They can no longer live in denial. I need to set them free.”

  “What truth?”

  “That we can never go back. We can never go back to the way things were.”

  I am starting to panic because I do not have long.

  “We are locked in this room,” he says. “You cannot leave. This room, this entire facility is designed to survive any extinction level event. Once those doors are locked, nothing leaves. Nothing gets in.”

  Again, he points to one of the screens. And this screen is enlarged. And in this screen are choppers and other aircraft that I don’t recognize. And one that I do recognize.

  It is an Osprey.

  Like the one Daniel’s team of mercenaries used. Like the one I was sucked out of when we flew into Sydney. These aircraft and the choppers and the Osprey are all hovering close to the ground. Ropes are thrown out of the choppers. Soldiers appear. They abseil down from the choppers.

  They are in the desert. They are in the outback. They are here.

  “The company,” the man in the gas mask says. “The Evo Agents. They are close. But they are too late. In less than ten minutes we will be locked in here with a rogue nano-swarm. A mechanical virus, a mechanical plague, a swarm that is designed to hunt and kill. Eat and consume. I will not kill Maria. But you will. And the world will watch. And they will remember you. The survivors will remember you. They will remember you and they will remember Maria. And they will understand.”

  He hands me the keys for Maria’s handcuffs. “Set her free if you wish. Set the world free.”

  And the puzzle pieces fit together and I can see the plan and the trees in the forest and I feel like such an idiot.

  This is why he injected me with a time release nano-swarm. This is why he helped me in the sick bay of the prison.

  He wants to show the world the nano-virus. He wants my nano-virus to kill Maria.

  He will take away hope. He will show them fear.

  The nano-swarm. And the Oz virus.

  The world is doomed. And he wants everyone to know. He wants everyone to know that the world is about to be destroyed and burnt to the ground and eaten by a biological weapon of mass destruction and a mechanical plague.

  And we can never go back to the way things were.

  He has planned this from the beginning.

  He is a goddamn psychopath.

  I could’ve ended it. I could’ve saved myself like a selfish son of a bitch and saved Maria from being eaten by the nano-swarm. But I chose to help my friend, and now I am being punished and Maria is being punished and everyone will watch. Everyone will see what I saw, when I watched George the Warden, eaten alive from the inside by the nano-virus. They will see me bleed and choke and scream and then disintegrate. And then they will watch as the nano-swarm eats Maria alive.

  I have the keys for her shackles in one hand. The Knife in the other.

  I need to kill the man in the gas mask.

  Tariq Sayid.

  Kumar Singh.

  Lucifer.

  Whatever the hell his name is.

  No. I don’t need to kill him. He’s already dead.

  But I want to kill him.

  I raise the knife, and again I study the blade. The serrations. Th
e forged metal.

  This knife is eerily similar to the one he was going to use to kill Maria, when he had her tied up in the train, all those days ago. I remember his speech. He said a weapon is an instrument of evil. But a weapon can also remove evil. Therefore they are to be considered the divine will of the gods.

  I had the chance to kill him then. In the train. With the shotgun. I had the chance to remove evil from this world.

  But I missed. I wasn’t ready for the shotgun blast. The recoil. It kicked like a damn horse. The barrel pulled up and to the left.

  I missed.

  I failed.

  But I will not fail again.

  Suddenly the entrance to the Control Room slides open with a hiss and a thud. Movement catches my eye.

  A weird shimmering mirage.

  A red dot appears on the inside of my wrist. An infra-red laser sight dot. From a rifle.

  The death squad is here.

  But I don’t see any soldiers. And the door is open.

  Who opened the door?

  I see the laser sight. I see the red dot on my arm. But I don’t see any soldiers.

  The weird shimmering mirage comes to life. And now I can see the soldiers. I can see a whole squad of soldiers.

  “Drop the knife!”

  My brain can barely register what’s going on.

  But I will not drop the knife. I want to kill this psychopath. I begin to bring the knife down. Like Kenji taught me.

  Bring it down. Stabbing motion. Through the skull.

  But I don’t get the chance.

  Searing hot pain shoots through my forearm. The knife is knocked from my hand and I am knocked clear off my feet. I smack the back of my head on the floor.

  I have been shot, and my watch beeps, and I am not sure how long I have left.

  Minutes. Seconds.

  But it doesn’t matter.

  It doesn’t matter because I have failed again and the death squad has arrived.

  And I am about to be executed.

  The Final Countdown

  The Control Room erupts into chaos. I can’t find the knife. I can’t see it anywhere.

  I’m not entirely sure what’s going on.

  I can hear voices shouting. “Hands on your head!

  I am lying flat on my back. And from down here, from this position, the man in the gas mask looks massive as he kneels next to me, with his hands on his head. He has put his hands on his head because I think the soldiers instructed him to.

  Dark blood continues to ooze from where I stabbed him with the knife.

  And I still can’t figure out what the hell is going on.

  Did the death squad take me out?

  Why?

  Because I was about to kill one of the creators of the Oz virus.

  The man in the gas mask, Doctor Kumar Singh, Doctor Tariq Sayid.

  This psychopath is their security. He is their leverage.

  Just like Doctor Hunter.

  Just like Kim.

  The leader of the death squad told us that the company was coming.

  The company. The Evo Agents.

  This is why they needed security. This is why they needed leverage.

  Who the hell is the company? YoshidaCorp?

  I have no idea. And I’ll never know. Just like I’ll never see the sun or the moon. I’ll never see the sky.

  This Fortress is my tomb.

  I try and sit up. I want to see my executioners. I want to look them in the eyes when they kill me. But I can’t move. My right hand, my fingers are shaking. I can’t make a fist. I can’t move my fingers at all. I can’t even wiggle them. Blood covers my forearm and shoots and spurts in a huge red arc.

  I lie back down and stare at the ceiling.

  More shouting from the death squad. No gunshots though.

  Maybe they will just let me bleed to death.

  I continue to stare at the ceiling and suddenly I start to lose my vision. It becomes blurry and unfocused, like I am staring into a heat mirage.

  And then this heat mirage takes on the form of a man.

  A soldier.

  Dressed in full battle armor.

  An NBC suit.

  A suit that is designed to withstand nuclear, biological and chemical threats.

  It takes my brain forever to realize what the hell is going on.

  There is a soldier standing over me, wearing an NBC suit. They had their cloaking device activated. And now they have turned it off and they have shimmered back into view.

  He is no longer invisible.

  He is no longer a ghost.

  The soldier takes his helmet and face mask off. And all of a sudden, Daniel is standing over me.

  I blink my eyes and I try and focus my vision and I can’t believe it.

  “She’s alive!” he yells to I’m not sure who.

  Doctor Hunter appears over me and he inspects my arm. He applies pressure immediately. “You clipped an artery.”

  My watch beeps and I finally speak. “How long? How long do I have?”

  How long does everyone have?

  “What is she talking about?” Daniel asks.

  “She is contaminated,” Doctor Hunter explains. “She is a threat. We need to get her to the research lab.”

  “What the hell do you mean? Is she infected?”

  “She is carrying a time-release nano-swarm. We only have a few minutes before it activates.”

  Daniel swears. “How long do you need?

  “Not long.”

  “Where is Maria,” I ask.

  Daniel looks down at me and wipes some blood off my face. “She’s safe. We’re getting out of here. We’re going to be all right.”

  And then the voices become distant and muffled. I keep talking but I don’t think anyone hears me.

  “Not safe,” I say. “Not as long as I’m around. Not as long as the man in the gas mask is alive.”

  They don’t respond to me.

  Suddenly I am picked up and placed on a stretcher.

  “The codes have been confirmed,” Daniel says. “We can’t override it. We can’t stop it.”

  “How long do we have?” Doctor Hunter asks.

  “Eight minutes. Which means you’ve got four minutes to do what you need to do and make it to the exit point. The express elevator takes thirty seconds to reach the Vehicle Access Point directly above us. I’m sending two men with you, but if you’re not ready, they will leave you here to die. Understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Move!”

  I feel myself lifted up on the stretcher. I am being carried out of the room. I have no idea where Maria is.

  Did they kill the man in the gas mask?

  Did they find Kenji and Jack and Ben?

  What about Kim?

  “Remove the targets,” Daniel says. “Get to the extraction point. Secure them in the Osprey. We are leaving.”

  I can feel my blood pumping from the wound in my arm. I feel weak.

  I pass out.

  A loud thumping noise wakes me up. I wake in complete darkness. I am inside a coffin. I have been buried alive. No, I have been locked inside one of the morgue freezers.

  This has bought everyone some time.

  When the nano-swarm eats its way through my body, it will be locked up. It will take time for it to make its way to the surface, to make its way out of the morgue.

  This will give the Evo Agents and Daniel and Doctor Hunter time to escape.

  This was a smart move by Doctor Hunter.

  Another loud noise. Another loud thump.

  “We’re out of time. We gotta go!”

  “It’s done.”

  Lightness returns to my world and I realize I am not inside a coffin or a morgue freezer.

  I am in the research lab. I am inside the MRI machine. And I realize that Doctor Hunter has just saved my life. He has destroyed the nano-virus inside me with the electromagnetic field created by the MRI machine.

  I am slid out of the machine and I wan
t to speak, I want to stand up but I can’t. I am weak from blood loss. I am delirious from blood loss.

  The bandage around my arm is completely soaked red.

  “Come on,” a soldier says. “This way. We’re leaving.”

  “How long?” Doctor Hunter asks.

  “Three minutes.”

  I am carried into an elevator by a soldier wearing an NBC suit, but in my mind they look like a medieval knight in shining armor.

  The elevator rises to the heavens and I feel my stomach rise to my mouth.

  Thirty seconds later the doors open.

  We have arrived at what appears to be a Vehicle Access Point.

  It is smaller than the other one. A lot smaller. Barely any vehicles. A few choppers. A few Humvees. That’s it.

  There are subway tunnels situated to my left and to my right.

  Standing behind the Humvees, like they are taking cover, like they are hiding, are my friends.

  Kenji.

  Jack.

  Ben.

  They are hiding behind the Humvees, and the Evo Agents are keeping watch, rifles raised and ready for action.

  I don’t see Maria or Kim.

  Suddenly, the blast doors high above us open up and the platform is lowered.

  And I can see the sky.

  It is so unbelievably blue.

  The Ospreys and the choppers, and the aircraft that I don’t recognize, are hovering above the access point. Hovering and waiting for us.

  Daniel was right. We are safe. We’re getting out of here. We’re going to be all right.

  We are nearly there.

  I finally stand and I walk over to my friends. I hug Jack. And Kenji. I hold on to him and I don’t let go.

  Ben is standing behind everyone. Keeping his distance. He keeps looking over at the elevator. It’s almost like he doesn’t want to leave. Like he wants to get back down into the Fortress. I wonder if he knows about General Spears.

  One of the Evo Agents says, “We have hostiles in the area. They are closing in on our position.”

  Daniel says, “Secure the extraction point.”

  The Evo Agents are taking no chances. They are keeping watch by the elevator and both of the entrances to the subway tunnels. I notice some of the Evo Agents are carrying EMP weapons. I guess they know about the nano-swarm.