by James Harden
“Yes, he was,” Sarah says. “They would’ve caused you pain. They would’ve tortured you. Do you understand? These people have been hurt. They’ve been hurt so bad, that they will never, ever go back to the way they were before all this happened. They don’t trust anyone. Soldiers. Civilians. It doesn’t matter.”
We can never go back…
“They will torture you,” she repeats. “They will break you. They will shatter you, and your bones, like glass. They will destroy your spirit. They will break you. And if they can’t put you back together, if they don’t like the way you react, they will kill you. I know you want to believe in people, in the human race, in anyone who has survived this long, but you can’t. You can’t trust anyone. These people are too far gone. You can’t save them. And you can’t trust them.”
Trust no one.
“So what do we do now?” Jack asks.
“Kenji left his knife here, right?” I say. “He wrote the letter ‘C’ on it.”
In his own blood.
“Then we need to get to the next apartment complex,” Sarah says. “To C Block.”
They call it C block. It sounds like a prison. I guess it is.
A prison for bodies.
A prison for souls.
A tomb.
“Let’s go,” Jack says.
“How many people are we up against?” Daniel asks.
“I’m not sure,” Sarah answers. “Ten? Twenty?”
“I need to know,” Daniel says. “I’ve only got fourteen bullets here.”
“Don’t worry. If they’re holding your friends where I think they’re holding them, we won’t need to shoot anyone. We should be able to sneak in, free them, and get the hell out before anyone even knows we’re there. No need for a gun fight. Or a knife fight.”
“I thought you said they would be torturing them?” I ask. “Or questioning them?”
“They will be. By isolating them. By tying them up in stress positions. By leaving them alone in a dark room for hours on end. For days on end. No food. No water. No human contact. This is the first step. Isolation. Starvation. Pain. They should be alone.”
They should be alone.
So here we go.
In and out.
No fighting. No killing.
I like this plan.
But it is never that easy. Never.
Chapter 29
We travel to C block.
A word of warning that I can’t shake, echoes in and around my mind.
Trust no one…
We walk quickly down another connecting corridor, another endless corridor.
“Won’t they be guarding these corridors?” I ask.
Sarah shakes her head. “No. There’s no point. The infected are confined to the other areas. And we don’t usually get too many people come through here. The Death Squad haven’t been back since…”
Since they massacred everyone.
“And besides,” she continues, “The Death Squad are afraid of the airborne strain. Can’t blame them, really. And any other stragglers, any other survivors that come through the residential sector, they usually end up dead or infected. The only reason you guys made it through here is because of me.”
And Sarah’s warning keeps playing over and over in my head.
Trust no one.
And I can’t shake it.
We move down a few floors, entering yet another stairwell. Sarah tells us that everyone sticks to the upper levels, because the upper levels are the safest. This means that the lower levels of C Block are relatively empty.
“What level do they keep prisoners on?” Daniel asks.
“The ground floor,” Sarah answers.
It’s funny to think of something as being on the ground floor, when we are miles below the earth’s surface.
We reach the ground floor of the stairwell.
Sarah holds her finger up to her lips, telling us to be quiet. She turns the door handle slowly. She opens it even slower.
We hear voices.
They are close.
I move up behind Sarah so I can see out into the corridor. I see a woman. She is flanked by two armed men.
I see Kim. On her knees. Hands tied behind her back.
I don’t see the others.
No Kenji.
No Maria.
They are nowhere to be seen. My heart races.
“You don’t have to do this,” Kim says, pleads.
“Yes,” the woman answers. “I do.”
I see a knife in the woman’s hands. A gun strapped to her leg.
Where the hell are the others? What the hell is going on?
The woman stands over Kim. “Now tell me, what is your name?”
“Huh? What?”
“What is your name?”
“Kim.”
The woman hits Kim across the face. And Kim’s head snaps back and forth with the force of the blow. She almost falls over.
“What is your name?” the woman repeats.
Kim doesn’t answer. She is too afraid to speak.
“It is a simple question with a simple answer,” the woman says. “What is your name?”
“I don’t know what you want from me,” Kim says.
“I want you to say your name.”
“My name is Kim,” she whispers.
And as soon as she says her name she is rocked on the side of the face with a backhanded slap.
“No. It is not. Your name is not Kim. Your name is Killer. Say your name.”
“Kim.”
Slap. Crack.
I can’t take this anymore.
The woman is shouting at Kim. “You’re name is Killer! Do you understand me!?”
And while she is shouting and torturing and conditioning, I whisper to Sarah, “We need to do something.”
“She won’t kill her,” Sarah says. “Kim will be fine.”
And as Sarah says this, Kim is begging for her life. Her nose is bleeding. Her lips are bleeding. Her eyes are swelling up.
“Just tell me your name,” the woman says. “And it will all be over.”
Just say Killer, I think in my head. I think it so loud I almost shout it out. Say it. Your name is Killer. That’s all you have to do. That’s all you have to say. And the pain will stop.
But Kim is stubborn. She is so goddamn stubborn. She spits up blood. She spits it on the woman’s shoes. “Are you deaf? My name is Kim.”
Crunch.
I think Kim’s nose is broken.
The woman puts her knife away. She motions to one of the men.
Kim is blindfolded. And they grab her under her arms, and drag her away to one of the rooms. They throw her in and close the door.
The woman and the two men then disappear into another room. Probably to continue this torture session with Kenji or Maria. And I know Maria won’t last five seconds. And I feel pain, I feel actual pain when I think about Maria being tortured.
And I wonder if they will even bother torturing Kenji. Maybe they will just kill him.
They don’t like soldiers. Not one bit.
“We have to do something,” I say. “We have to get them out of here.”
Sarah keeps the door open a crack so she can keep a look out. “Yeah,” she says. “You’re right. They’re being much more aggressive than usual.”
I think I know why. Kim is not one to cooperate. Kenji is a soldier.
And I wonder if they know who Maria is. They probably do. And if they know who Maria is, then they will think that she’s immune. Naturally this will raise a lot of questions. Naturally they will want to ask Kim and Kenji what the hell they are doing here with Maria Marsh, the only person in the world who has shown any resistance to the Oz virus. And judging by what I just saw, they will ask questions the hard way.
They will break you down. They will shatter you, and your bones.
“I have a plan,” Sarah says. “Follow me.”
Chapter 30
“So where would they keep the others?”
I ask.
“Close by,” Sarah answers. “This whole area is used for…”
“Torture,” I say.
Sarah nods.
“So they’re using this floor as like a prison?” Jack asks
“Yeah.”
“OK,” Daniel says. “We need to determine exactly which rooms they are being held in. Once we know what rooms they’re in, we need to get them and get the hell out, before anyone realizes we’re here.”
“But how?” I ask, genuinely confused as to how we would accomplish such a thing. “We are completely unarmed. We have a few EMP grenades, but they’re harmless against humans.”
“Maybe we can use them to kill the emergency power lights,” Jack suggests. “And then we can take them by surprise.”
“We might not even need to do that,” Daniel says. “Remember, we have the advantage here. We know they won’t shoot us. Not at first. We can get the drop on them.”
“Maybe you can,” I say. “But the rest of us are not Special Forces soldiers. And Jack only has one good leg.”
“Two soldiers,” Daniel replies. “Once we find Kenji, we’ll have two soldiers.”
Daniel’s optimism is sometimes frustrating, sometimes contagious.
“I have guns,” Sarah says. “I’ve only got a few. And I’ve never used them before because they’re too damn loud. In here, you fire a gun, you may as well be ringing a dinner bell. Or funeral bells.”
I remember someone, Maria maybe, saying this exact thing earlier on, in the subway tunnel. Great minds think alike, I guess.
“You have guns? Daniel asks. “Where?”
“They’re hidden.”
“We have to go and get them.” I say. “We’re going to need them if we want any chance of doing this.”
“There’s only one problem,” she says. “I hid them where no one would find them, where no one would even dare look for them.”
“Where?” Daniel asks.
“The warehouses.”
They locked people up, I think to myself. Starved them. Massacred them.
“We don’t have a choice,” Daniel says. “We have to go.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” Sarah warns. “The whole area is contaminated. And there are hundreds of infected people down there.”
“Daniel is right,” Jack says. “We don’t have a choice. If we want to get the others out of here, we need to be armed.”
Jack is becoming desperate again. His family has been taken hostage. His family is being tortured.
He just witnessed his sister…
“Kim is strong,” I say to Jack. “She can handle this.”
“I’m not worried about Kim,” he answers.
Sarah checks and makes sure everyone has at least one spare air filter. I turn around so she can check my backpack. She unzips the pack and has a look.
“I should have three spare air filters,” I say. “Enough for everyone to have a backup.”
She digs around in the pack. “Yes. I see them. Good. So all up, we’ll have about ten minutes of clean air. But ultimately we don’t want to spend that much time in there. We’ll need to get in and out. And Jack will have to stay behind. He won’t be able to make it on his leg. Not enough time.”
Jack nods. “It’s fine. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”
Sarah points to the stairs, under the stairs. “If you see anyone or hear anyone coming, hide under the stairwell. Right under. They won’t check. They won’t see you.”
I really do not like the idea of splitting up. It makes me nervous and anxious just thinking about it. But Jack will only slow us down. And there is absolutely no time for stragglers.
In and out.
We probably won’t even need to change over air filters.
“Let’s go,” Sarah says, as she checks to see if the hallway is clear. “This way.”
I quickly hug Jack. “We’ll be right back. Keep your head down.”
Jack nods. “I’ll be fine. Just hurry.”
Sarah puts her gas mask on immediately. Daniel and I do the same. We follow her into another connecting hallway that opens up into a wide lobby type area. From here we move into the subway station. We cross the tracks. Sarah syncs her watch so she knows how much time we have before we will need to change air filters.
“How long do we have?” I ask.
“Four minutes,” she answers. “Plenty of time.”
Daniel syncs his watch. “Where to now?” he asks.
“There’s a special set of tracks that lead into the actual warehouses,” she answers. “It allows them to unload supplies from the trains directly into the warehouses.”
She points up ahead. And sure enough, there’s a set of tracks that branch off into another separate tunnel.
“Down there,” she says. “That’s where the warehouses are.”
Another tunnel. Another mouth…
“There’s six warehouses,” she informs us. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think there’s one for each apartment complex, and one for each section of the commercial district.”
“So where are the guns hidden?” Daniel asks.
“I hid them in the closest warehouse to this apartment block. It’s the only one that’s safe. No infected. No dead bodies.”
“But it’s still contaminated with the airborne strain?” he asks.
“Yes. Keep your gas mask on. Make sure it’s secure. Follow me.”
We enter the warehouse. The tracks lead straight inside. We walk through a large gate that had been busted open. The warehouse is a huge, cavernous building. Row after row of shelves. The shelves were almost as high as the ceiling. Each shelf is packed with pallets full of boxes and boxes of supplies.
Food. Water. Other essentials.
It was like walking into a secret cave of hidden treasures.
“OK,” Sarah says. “I’ve hidden them at the back of the warehouse. There’s some in that corner, and some in the other corner.”
“Let’s split up,” Daniel says. “Where exactly did you hide them?”
“They’re right in the corner. They’re underneath an empty pallet. There’s a blanket on top of the pallet. And some empty boxes. You should be able to just lift the pallet up.”
“Got it,” Daniel says as he checks his watch. “We’ve only got three minutes left on these air filters. So let’s get these guns and meet back here as soon as possible.”
“Let’s do it,” I say.
Daniel runs off for the far corner, disappearing down a seemingly never ending aisle.
“You ready?” Sarah asks me.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Sarah turns and starts running for the opposite corner.
I’m about to follow her. But just then I hear a voice.
I hear someone calling out to me. I hear Kim. But that can’t be.
“I need my meds,” Kim says to me, whispers to me. “Or I am going to die.”
I hear Kim’s voice as clear as day. She’s hurt. She’s in trouble.
I need to find her.
Sarah is running straight ahead. She is in front of me. But Kim’s voice is coming from my right, down another aisle.
“Sarah, wait. I hear something. It’s down here.”
I follow the sound of Kim’s voice.
Sarah stops running. “Rebecca, come back!”
I ignore her. I run forward. Looking down each empty aisle.
“Rebecca!” Kim shouts. “I am going to die.”
“Kim? Where are you?”
I pass another empty aisle. And another. “Kim!?”
I start running.
“I am going to die!” Kim says.
I run faster.
I slam into Daniel and fall over.
Daniel has a rifle slung over his shoulder. The rifle is not loaded. He has two magazines in his other hand. “Rebecca, what are you doing? Where is Sarah?”
“Can you hear that?” I ask.
“Hear what?”
“I think Kim is do
wn here.”
“That’s impossible,” he says.
I hear Kim’s voice again. Calling to me. “I need my meds.”
I get back to my feet and start running.
“Rebecca,” Daniel calls out to me. “We’ve only got two minutes left. Your air filter is going to expire! Get back here! We have to go!”
But again, just like before in the subway tunnel, I am not listening to Daniel’s warning. I hear Kim. I swear to god I can hear Kim.
“Rebecca!” Daniel shouts. “Get ba…”
Daniel’s voice cuts out. I hear a noise. A thump. A muffled cry of pain. I ignore it. I concentrate on Kim’s voice.
And then I hear Jack’s voice… “Where the hell do we go?”
And none of this makes sense. Jack sounds like he is up ahead. But that’s impossible. He’s hiding back in C block. He is hiding under the stairs. Did he make his way down here? Was there an emergency? Was he forced to leave his hiding spot?
But how would he know to come here?
He wouldn’t.
He doesn’t know the way.
I hear Jack’s voice again. “What the hell are you talking about? Where have you been?”
And then I hear Kim’s voice again.
My gas mask beeps at me. The built in timer is telling me that I am running out of time. Running out of air. I have a minute remaining. Maybe less. Maybe more. My hand goes to my backpack. I sling it off my shoulders and I unzip the pack.
I see the belt of EMP grenades.
But I can’t find the air filters.
I can’t see them.
My hand frantically digs around the backpack. But I have absolutely no air filters.
None whatsoever.
Where the hell are they all?
I have less than a minute remaining.
I hear Kim’s voice yet again. She is moaning in pain. She sounds like she is dying.
I look up, and in front of me are huge double doors. The doors are chained together. They are chained shut. I think this is the entrance to the next warehouse over.
“Rebecca,” Kim says, clear as day. “I need my meds.”
It sounds like the voice is coming from the other side of the doors. I try forcing them open but the chain holds them together.
“I am going to die,” Kim says.
And then the doors open slightly. They are being pushed from the other side. They open just a crack, just enough so I can see into the next warehouse over.