A World on Fire: Secret Apocalypse Book 6 (Secret Apocalypse Series)

by James Harden

  The Evo Agents finally come back.

  “Can we go now?” Maria says.

  “Yeah,” Parker answers. “Tunnel’s clear. Let’s go.”

  “Wait,” Ben says. “Give me some light.”

  Scott points his torch at the ground next to the train tracks.

  Ben crouches down again, pointing to his very basic map of the residential area.

  Subway station. Commercial area. Warehouses. Apartment blocks.

  “These areas here are no good,” he says. “Most of the public areas, no good. But if we move through here, through this subway station. It might be OK.”

  “But how will we know,” Kim asks. “We can’t see the airborne strain, can we?”

  “It depends,” Daniel says.

  “On what?”

  Daniel shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s too dangerous.”

  “So we can’t go in,” Kim says. “We won’t know if it’s safe or if it’s not. The only way we will know, is if we get infected by breathing the air. Like a goddamn canary in a coal mine. I’m not doing that.”

  Ben looks at Daniel. At Parker and Scott. “These boys can go in. You can suit up.”

  “But won’t the place be completely overrun with the infected?” Maria asks. “Sounds like a dead end to me.”

  “Probably,” Ben says.

  “I’m not suggesting we go right now,” Jack adds. “I’m just saying we might have to consider it as a last resort. Do you wanna starve to death? Do you wanna die of thirst?”

  These were terrible options.

  But this is the world we live in now. Every decision, every choice, every fork in the road, in the tunnel, is a life or death proposition.

  “We’ll do it,” Daniel says. “If it comes to that. But it won’t. Because we are getting rescued. They are coming back for us. We are getting out of here.”

  I’m starting to get the feeling Daniel is trying to convince himself more than us.

  “Wait,” Kim says, pointing back down the tunnel. “What the hell is that?”

  She is pointing at a bright light.

  If I didn’t know any better I would’ve thought it was a light from an approaching train.

  But I do know better.

  The light is the nano-swarm. It is hunting us.

  “It’s coming,” Kim says, lowering her voice. “It’s right there. We have to go.”

  “How far away is that?” Maria asks.

  “Not far,” Kenji answers.

  “OK, so we continue down this tunnel,” Daniel says. “And we’ll be at the western Vehicle Access Point in less than an hour. And then we’re home free.”

  I want to believe him. I really do. But it is never that easy.

  The light disappears.

  “If the swarm gets too close,” he continues. “We stun it with the EMP grenades.”

  “It’s not going to be that easy,” Ben says. “You’re a goddamn fool if you think it’s going to be that easy. These tunnels are crawling with infected.”

  “And the nano-swarm can move way faster than we can,” Jack adds.

  I give Jack a look.

  “What? I’m not trying to bring everyone down. I’m just reminding everyone that the swarm moves fast, and we need to be ready.”

  “He’s right,” Parker says. “We need to be alert. We need to stay focused. If we stick together, if we work together, we can get you out of here. But we need to work together.” He turns to Ben. “And we need that grenade back.”

  For a second I think to myself that he has a good point about working together and staying focused.

  But this optimism is short lived, because what Parker’s really saying is…

  Do as we say.

  Do not interfere.

  Do not think.

  Trust us.

  “No,” Ben says. “You don’t need this grenade.”

  “And the gun,” Scott says to Kenji. “Hand it over.”

  Parker steps back and raises his rifle, points it at Ben.

  “What are you doing?” I ask.

  “We’re in charge of this mission,” Parker says. “And if you guys want our protection, if you want any hope of getting out of here alive, if you want to get rescued, we need our weapons back. All of them.”

  Chapter 11

  Parker says he is in charge. He says this with fear and panic in his voice. He says it with uncertainty. He says it with no real confidence or authority.

  Yes. He is scared. And I totally understand. This is only a natural reaction to his current situation. Most of his men, his brothers are dead. Four of them have disappeared into thin air, into the dark, without a trace.

  The rest were burned and crushed and vaporized.

  So yeah, I can understand his reaction. But he is not in charge. Daniel is in charge. Daniel is the commanding officer.

  And this is exactly what Daniel says. “I gave Kenji my sidearm. And I think we should give everyone an EMP grenade. They all have experience. More experience than you do. It’s my call to arm these people.”

  Maybe Daniel’s authority is being challenged because he’s hurt.

  He has head wounds.

  Broken ribs.

  Maybe the men can sense this. Maybe they don’t think he is leading to the best of his ability. Maybe this is why his men want to take over and relieve him of his command.

  Maybe this is why they are acting like complete idiots.

  “It’s not your call anymore,” Parker fires back at Daniel. “Your judgment has been compromised.”

  “You’ve been giving these guys way too much free reign,” Scott adds. “This is our mission. We can’t let civilians dictate terms. We can’t let them make decisions that effect our survival.”

  “They know what they’re doing,” Daniel says. “They’ve survivors. I’ve been with them before. I know these guys. We can trust them.”

  Parker looks at me. At Maria. “No,” he says. “They’re civilians. They’re just kids.”

  Daniel points to Kenji. “He is a Marine sniper. And Kim is a police officer. They can handle this. We need them.”

  “They’re fresh,” Scott says. “They’re green. We need to…”

  “Fresh?” Jack says. “Green? You haven’t even seen a swarm up close before. Who you calling green?”

  “Daniel, you’re going to get us all killed,” Parker says, ignoring Jack completely. “This is our mission. We’re in charge here. And we can’t do this. We shouldn’t be doing this. Talking about the nano-swarms. And I heard you talking about mutations and Project Salvation. This is highly classified stuff. They’ll find out, they’ll…”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask. “What are you so afraid of? Who are you so afraid of?”

  “Is it the company?” Kim asks.

  “No more questions,” Scott says.

  They don’t believe that Daniel has control of the situation. They want to relieve him of his command.

  It’s a mutiny. A military coup.

  “Who exactly is the company?” Maria asks. “And why are you so afraid of them?”

  “We can’t tell you that,” Daniel answers. “It’s classified.”

  “Don’t,” I say. “Just don’t. Is it YoshidaCorp?”

  Kenji gives me a look. “What?”

  I grab the one and only harpoon launcher we have out of the Humvee. I show him the logo on the side of the barrel.

  YoshidaCorp.

  “Your father’s company is involved somehow,” I say.

  Kenji is shaking his head. He doesn’t believe it. Doesn’t understand. “How? Why? My father’s company supplies software and computer processors for car companies. He doesn’t make military weapons.”

  “Do you guys work for YoshidaCorp?” I ask Daniel.

  Daniel doesn’t look at me, can’t look at me. The other men are worried. They are uncomfortable.

  “Hudson, this is classified info,” Parker says. “You keep your mouth shut.” Parker then turns to me. “H
ow do you even know about this?”

  “Are you serious?” I say. “Daniel just told you. We have experienced this stuff, up close and personal. We know about the EMP weapons. We know about the nano-swarms. We know about Project Salvation. We know about every little messed up thing there is to know. So you can just shut the hell up about all this stuff being classified. It’s not classified because we know everything.”

  It was strange having this argument. These guys didn’t seem to fully realize what we had been through. And I can’t believe we have to defend ourselves, prove ourselves.

  “We’ve seen it all,” I add. “We’ve done it all.”

  Scott eyes me suspiciously. “I know you’ve been out here a long time. But we’re just following orders. We’re obeying the chain of command. We can’t just allow you people to do whatever you want. We can’t. There are consequences.”

  Ben steps in. “If we don’t stick together, if we don’t stop arguing, the only consequence will be death. They’ve taken out nano-swarms before. At least two that I know of. And I’ve used the prototype, the X1.” He points at me. “She ran right through a swarm.”

  “So did Maria,” I add.

  “They’ve taken out two nano-swarms,” Ben continues. “They’ve killed entire hordes of the infected. In Sydney. Out here in the desert. Down here in the Fortress. How many nano-swarms have you taken out?”

  Silence. No answer from Parker or Scott.

  “That’s what I thought,” Ben says.

  “We know all about the EMP weapons,” I repeat. “We know about the nano-swarms. We know about Project Salvation. We know everything.”

  Well, almost everything.

  “So who the hell do you work for?” I ask. “Who the hell is YoshidaCorp?”

  Daniel finally caves. “They’re in charge,” he says. “That’s our employer. It’s the company. They were working with the military…”

  “That’s enough,” Parker says. “You can’t just divulge classified information to civilians.”

  “That’s all I know,” Daniel says. “I swear.”

  Jack steps in with his hands raised in an attempt to calm everyone down. “Guys, we can argue about what’s classified and what’s not classified later. Bur right now, we need to move. We’re wasting time.”

  “Yeah,” Maria says. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I say to Daniel, ignoring Parker. Ignoring Scott. Ignoring Jack’s warning. Ignoring the nano-swarm and the horde of infected that are chasing us down. “You know more. You know a lot more than you’re letting on.”

  “Did YoshidaCorp employ Doctor Hunter?” Ben asks. “Did they build this place? Did they help create the Oz virus?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” Daniel answers. “But yes. The doctors were, are, a high priority. Higher than anyone.”

  And hearing him say it out loud feels like a sucker punch to my gut. “Are you aware that the man in the gas mask, Doctor Kumar Singh, or Tariq Sayid, or whatever the hell his name is...” I trail off because I can’t get over the size of the deception that this psychopath pulled off. The monstrous lies. The sabotage. “Do you realize he is behind the outbreak? He sabotaged your research facilities, he sabotaged this place, he sabotaged everything! He singlehandedly caused the outbreaks, the containment failures, the entire apocalypse.”

  “Research facilities…” Kenji whispers. “What are you saying? Are you saying that my father’s company was responsible for the illegal testing on refugees? Did my father’s company set up those slums, those shanty towns in the outback? Did he kill and infect and torture and experiment on innocent people?”

  Kenji’s face is pale. His eyes are distant. He is going into shock.

  “All right,” Parker says. “That’s enough!”

  He draws his sidearm and points it directly at Daniel’s head. “You can’t do this. I don’t care how much stuff you’ve been through with these guys. I don’t care that you survived with them in the middle of Sydney. You can’t give up classified info like this. You know what the company does. You know better than anyone.”

  “These people have a right to know,” Daniel says. “And they already know. They know more than you do.”

  Scott steps forward and takes the gun off Kenji. Kenji doesn’t fight. He doesn’t resist. He has gone quiet. He is still wondering what part his father’s company has played in all this.

  “That’s Kenji Yoshida,” I say. “His name is on the weapons that you use for crying out loud. It’s his father’s company. That’s the boss’s son!”

  “Don’t care,” Parker says. “We have our orders. If we don’t follow them…”

  “What?” Daniel asks. “What’s going to happen?”

  “You already know,” he repeats. You know better than anyone.”

  “We’re alone down here,” Daniel says. “We are cut off.”

  “They’ll find out,” Scott says. “They always find out. Do you want to lose your name?”

  Daniel shakes his head. “No. I don’t want that. No one wants that. But that’s not going to happen. Like I said, we’re alone down here. We have to stay together. We’re on our own. It’s up to us to get out of here, to get to the extraction point. The more these people know, the better.”

  “No,” Parker says. “The less they know the better.”

  These guys were scared. Really scared. Scared of their employers, their superiors. Scared of the company.

  YoshidaCorp.

  And I can tell Kenji is still trying to figure out if what Daniel had said was true. Was his father’s company responsible?

  Did they experiment on innocent, clueless people?

  Did they torture innocent people?

  In the name of science?

  In the pursuit of profit?

  Kenji is confused and angry and sad. And he gave up his gun without a fight, without hesitation.

  “What are you going to do?” Daniel asks Parker.

  “I’m relieving you of your command,” Parker says. “I’m taking over. If you keep talking, I will kill you myself.”

  “This is a mistake,” Daniel says. “You need me. I need my weapon. We are surrounded by death down here!”

  “Keep your voice down.”

  I can’t believe what is happening. None of us can. We are all silent. Shocked.

  We are witness to a mini military coup.

  A mutiny.

  A hostile takeover.

  Right when we need to be strong, right when we need to be working together.

  We are fracturing. We are breaking apart.

  Jack is holding on to Maria. Kim has led them away, back over near the Humvee.

  Even Ben is silent. He has also moved back. He is now standing near the wall, in the darkness. He is keeping his distance. He is watching from the shadows. He is studying Parker and Scott. He is figuring out what kind of people they are. He is waiting for this to play out.

  He is judging them. And judging us.

  Sometimes Ben scares me.

  Parker points his rifle at us. “Tie them up,” he says to Scott.

  Scott removes several plastic zip ties from his pack. He steps forward and is about to tie us up. But he makes a crucial mistake. He moves over to Ben first. “You too. You’re all civilians. We’re doing this to protect you. You have to trust us.”

  Ben holds his hands out, like he is submitting.

  But he’s not.

  As soon as Scott tries to tie his wrists, Ben grabs Scott’s forearm. He does this quickly. Violently. He twists Scott’s arm. He twists it so far beyond the normal range of movement that his arm has to be broken. Or dislocated. Scott loses his balance, and Ben punches him square in the chest.

  The force of the blow knocks Scott off his feet, knocks the air from his lungs. He drops the handgun he had taken off of Kenji and it slides under the Humvee.

  And I can’t believe it. Ben just dropped an Evo Agent, an NVX strengthened super soldier, wearing a special
protective suit that is designed to survive chemical and biological and nuclear threats.

  A suit that is bullet proof and blast proof and zombie proof.

  Yeah. Ben scares me.

  Kenji picks up the gun but he doesn’t aim it anyone. He doesn’t arm it. He is still in shock.

  Parker aims his rifle at Kenji and then at Ben. His movements are quick and frantic. “No one move a goddamn muscle.”

  Scott slowly gets to his knees. He still can’t breathe.

  Parker points his rifle at Ben’s head. “Do that again and I will drop you.”

  Scott quickly catches his breath and gets to his feet.

  The rest of us are motionless. We are paralyzed.

  I don’t know what Ben is going to do. I don’t know what Parker or Scott are going to do.

  Everything is tense.

  We are unarmed. Ben is unarmed. Kenji puts the gun back in the waist of his pants. His mind is a million miles away.

  Daniel needs to do something. He needs to talk some sense into these men.

  Their rational thought has gone out the window, it has disappeared. The fear of death has pushed them over the edge.

  Death is all they can think about.

  How to outrun it.

  How to avoid it.

  I can’t blame them.

  “We’re not going to fight you,” Kim says, trying desperately to calm down the Evo Agents. “We’ll do whatever you say. But we need to get out of here. We need to get back in the Humvee and we need to go.”

  I start to smell smoke.

  The toxic cloud has caught up to us.

  Scott has fully regained his composure. He can finally breathe again. He takes a step back. He then takes out his sidearm and points it at Ben. “Hands on your head. Get on your knees.”

  Ben remains still. He has that cold look in his eyes.

  Scott flicks the safety off and cocks the hammer. “I’m not messing around here. Do it.”

  And then the weirdest thing happens.

  I hear this strange whistling noise. And then suddenly, magically, some kind of black stick appears in Scott’s hand, through his hand.

  The hand holding the gun.

  The stick is an arrow. A black arrow.

  It causes Scott to simultaneously scream in pain and fire off one shot. The bullet slams into the concrete wall of the tunnel, right next to Ben’s head.