"Can’t sleep?" I asked.
"Nah. I keep thinking about, well about everything. Sydney in ruins, the speed that the virus has spread around Australia, the death toll."
"Yeah." I said, because I didn’t know what else to say. "It keeps me awake as well. When I was back in Los Angeles I used to get really bad night terrors. I had insomnia and everything. Funny thing is, now that I’m back here, I don’t get them as much."
"How come?"
"Don’t know. Maybe my brain is too tired. Maybe my subconscious knows I’m back in the line of fire and so it’s cutting me some slack or something. I don’t know."
"Yeah. Maybe. The messed up thing is, it’s not just the Oz virus and the infected people that we have to worry about anymore is it? That monster, that mechanical spider thing or whatever the hell it was. It’s too much. The odds are stacked too high. It’s just not fair. What chance do we have?"
Maria was worried and scared. You could hear it in her voice.
"Hey, it’s going to be all right. I mean, we still have each other. We’re a strong group. We’ve come along away. We can make it."
"I don’t know," she continued. "We haven’t seen any survivors at all. Shouldn’t there be at least one or two groups of people out here? We can’t be the only ones. And that letter we found in the kitchen. What if when we do find survivors, they’ve gone mad or something? What if they’ve turned into complete savages?"
"That’s why we need to be careful. We need to stick together. We’re a formidable force when you think about it. We're heavily armed. We’re being really careful. And we’ve got two soldiers with us."
"Yeah. I suppose you’re right. I’m worried about Jack though. He puts on a brave face but I can tell he’s struggling."
"What do you mean?"
"He keeps telling me that his parents got out of Sydney in time, that they’re safe at his grandfather’s farm. I think he’s trying to convince himself more than me. But I also think that deep down he knows the reality. And I think it's starting to get to him."
Yeah, I thought. The reality was that his parents were dead. It was an awful reality.
I started to think about my own mother. And how I haven’t really even thought about her much. Does that even make sense? I don’t know. It’s confusing. But I think ultimately it’s just easier not to think about that stuff. Especially when we needed to be strong, when we needed to be focused on getting out of this place.
Then again, maybe I’ve already come to terms with the fact that she’s gone. That there’s no way she was evacuated. I saw the military’s ‘containment protocol’ in action. I saw the virus in action. There’s no way she got out. And I think I’ve accepted that. Almost.
As for Jack, well, he was strong. We all knew that. I saw just how strong he was when he saved me from drowning in Sydney Harbor. And when he jumped out of our escape boat and swam back for Maria when she had been captured. That was courage and strength, real, freakin, hardcore strength. But losing both parents at once and Kim, his sister. His whole family. Not even Jack was strong enough to deal with that all by himself. Sooner or later he would lose it, he would break down. He needed to. It was only natural, it was only human. I just hoped he could keep it together for a little while longer, at least until we made it back to Daniel’s camp, back to the X-wing.
"Do you think he was serious when he said he was going to find his sister?" Maria asked.
Jack’s sister Kim was supposed to be in quarantine facility in New Zealand. But at Sydney airport we found a computer that belonged to Doctor Hunter, one of the madmen responsible for the outbreak. On his computer we saw video footage of Kim being interviewed by another Doctor. The footage clearly showed that she had been drugged. She was being held captive at a facility on Christmas Island. We think she was being used as a test subject in some sort of experiment. Possibly for a cure. Apparently this island was way off the west coast of Australia.
Despite the fact that the facility was so far away, and that it would probably be heavily guarded, and that even attempting to get there would be a suicide mission, Jack had told us all he was going to try and save her. With or without our help.
"Well?" Maria asked. "Do you?"
I nodded. "Unfortunately, yeah, I do. Jack is a stubborn guy. Once his mind is made up and once he knows you’re safe, I think he’ll do everything in his power to save his sister. That’s just the kind of guy he is. I guess that’s why he’s one of the good ones."
Maria smiled at this. Even though she knew that if Jack ran off and tried to save Kim it would be the death of him. "Yeah," she said after awhile. "He is one of the good ones."
Once Maria had confessed her fears to me she finally went back to sleep.
I looked out the window, up at the galaxy of stars. At the moon. A sliver of cloud moved across it like a knife.
CHAPTER 5
The next day we continued to rest up. I slept for most of the morning. In the afternoon I made my way down to the main living room and found some books to read.
Jack and Maria were playing a heated game of ‘Jenga’.
Kenji was keeping watch upstairs somewhere and Daniel had gotten to work on boarding up the house. He was turning it into a real stronghold. He was using all the interior doors and the doors from the kitchen cupboards to board up the windows.
"Do you want any help?" I asked.
"Nah, I’m fine. I’m nearly done anyway."
In the short time that I’ve known Daniel, I’ve come to realize that he doesn’t know how to stop. He’s like a machine. He just keeps going. Except unlike a machine he didn’t have an off switch.
"Hey, do you know where Kenji is?" I asked.
"He’s upstairs. Setting up two bird’s nests."
"Huh?"
"Sniper positions. Defensive shooting positions."
"Oh."
The books I had found were all old hard covers. Some of them looked pretty expensive.
The book case was built into the wall next to this huge fire place. I read this one book about Ernest Hemingway. OK, I didn’t actually read it all. More like I skimmed through it. But this one quote jumped out at me. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
"The beast at the bullfight is the crowd."
I don’t know why I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I guess it was like it was a small universal truth about human nature. People are beasts. We are monsters. We’re capable of creating a virus that could wipe out an entire population. We’re capable of acting like we’ve been robbed of our humanity, in a situation where we should be coming together to fight a common enemy.
As I was reading the collection of books in the living room, Jack and Maria continued playing their game of ‘Jenga’ while having a friendly argument about movies and fashion and how Maria wanted to open her own line of clothing. For the practical woman.
"So, you know, she can be ready for a zombie apocalypse at a moment’s notice. I mean, ninety percent of women’s clothing right now, is just not apocalypse compatible. Jeggings? Forget about it."
Jack wasn’t really paying attention to Maria’s rant. He was concentrating on removing one of the wooden blocks from the Jenga tower.
"God, I wish I had started my own clothing line," Maria continued.
"Fashion?" Jack said. "Really? That’s what you're thinking about right now. Honestly I could not think of a more useless industry. Every time you make me watch ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, I die a little on the inside."
"What? I thought you liked that movie."
"I mean, sure Anne Hathaway is smoking hot, but seriously, when the boss lady, what's her face?"
"Meryl Streep."
"Yeah. When she gives that speech to Anne Hathaway about her blue sweater and how it first appeared in some fashion magazine and now it’s available at your local bargain bin, discount store and how it's supposed to be all meaningful…"
Jack stuck a finger down his throat and mimicked throwing up.
I loved listening to these guys talk. At that point in time, listening to them was a great way to escape and forget about the outside world for awhile. Forget about where we were and what we were doing.
"OK, fine, whatever," Maria continued. "That's not my point anyways. My point is, if I had a clothing line, I would be making way better, way more practical clothes."
"Like your NBC suit," Jack said smiling. "I am a huge fan."
"Shut up. But yes, maybe not as full on as the NBC suit. But yeah, you're on the right track. Like jeans for example. Jeans used to be blue collar work wear. Reliable. Durable. And now they're fashionable. That’s what I’m all about."
"Sounds reasonable."
"And pockets," she said. "Female clothing is sorely lacking in pockets."
For fleeting moment, it was like everything was back to normal. If I closed my eyes, ignored the outside world, listened to Maria and Jack playing board games, it was like we were on some sort of family vacation.
But then Daniel and Kenji entered the room. Their faces looked grim.
They said we needed to have a meeting, make a plan.
"Why? What’s wrong?" I asked.
"We’re out of food," Daniel said.
"And water," Kenji added. "There’s not enough left. We need to raid the nearby town. We need to do it now."
CHAPTER 6
Kenji warned us before we had set out on our journey that we’d need to avoid the towns. And he was right. Most of the towns we’d come across so far had been full of infected people. Way too dangerous to risk for a few cans of peaches or baked beans.
We sat around the table in the kitchen. The map was still spread out. Someone had drawn a line in red ink from the farmhouse to the nearest town of Hunter. The town was circled. There was a little arrow pointing to a hill where we would be able to observe the town from a safe distance, before we ventured in.
"It would be good if we could stay here for a few days longer." Daniel said. "We need the rest."
"But if we want to stay here, then we need to raid this town for supplies," Kenji said pointing to the map. "According to this, there's a town not far from here. It's only small. But it should have a general store or a supermarket or something."
"Are we all going?" I asked.
"I think Maria should stay here." Jack said.
"No way," Maria argued. "You are not leaving me here in the creepy, Texas Chainsaw Massacre house."
"Well, that’s what we’re here to discuss," Daniel said. "We need to plan this raid and execute it before we all get too dehydrated. Once that happens, we won’t be able to think straight."
"I vote we stick together," I said. "I mean, what if something happens? Like you told me before Kenji, we're stronger as a group."
Jack shook his head. "No. No way. Maria stays here. It’s safe in this house. Especially now that Daniel has boarded up the place. We can leave Maria here with a couple of rifles just in case. She’ll be safe."
Maria did not like that idea at all. She looked at Jack with a kind of angry disbelief. "You really think leaving me here by myself is a good idea? Do you really think I’ll be safe? I’m a terrible shot. You know I’m a terrible shot."
"Yeah, but chances are you won’t even need to use the guns. We’re in the middle of nowhere. You’re safe in this house. The infected can’t get you. Out there, they can get you. You’re not safe outside."
"What about the note?" I said.
"What note?"
"Yeah, she’s right," Daniel said.
"About what?" Jack asked.
"About the gangs," Daniel continued. "The note said they were moving out of the cities, looking for places to camp. This house is prime real estate. What if a gang of some not very nice people saw this place?"
"They would want it for themselves," I said.
"That’s right. They would take it by force if necessary. Maria can’t stay here."
Jack pictured a worst case scenario inside his head. He suddenly realized there was no way we could leave Maria by herself.
"Fine," he said. "We all go."
Kenji pointed to the map again. "We can follow this creek all the way to the town."
The creek ran through the property all the way to the town of Hunter where it wrapped around the town like a snake.
I looked out the kitchen window. You could see the trees that lined the creek. According to Daniel the trees were called ‘river gums’. Apparently they are a kind of gum tree or eucalyptus tree that are found along the banks of rivers and waterways. Hopefully they would provide good concealment for us as we moved through the creek.
"The creek is probably dry," Kenji said. "So it should be easy enough to walk through. It will provide a good hiding spot as well. If we need to hide."
"We may as well get some other stuff while we're there." Jack suggested. "Like if anyone sees a computer store let me know. We might be able to get a replacement battery for Doctor Hunter’s computer."
Ever since we found Doctor Hunter’s computer, Jack had carried it around everywhere. He barely lets it out of sight. The reason? On that computer is the whereabouts of his sister. So ever since the battery died, Jack has been on the lookout for a replacement. The computer had all the answers.
The rest of our list was a bit more practical. At the top were baked beans, even though we were all sick of them. Any canned food was also a top priority.
We also wanted clean clothes. Socks. Undies. Sunscreen.
Surprisingly writing out the list had made me tired. I guess it forced us to think ahead, think of everything that we would need. Which in turn forced us to think about everything that could go wrong. After we’d finished the list we were all kind of depressed.
Daniel snapped us out of our funk and brought us back to reality. He was good at keeping us on our toes. Keeping us scared enough not to get complacent.
"Use of guns," he said.
I had my head resting on the table but when he mentioned ‘guns’ I sat up. "Huh? Guns?"
"Loud noises are bad," he continued. "In the city we had no choice. We had to use fire power. But out here, we needed to be in stealth mode. This is essentially a raid, a supply run. We can’t afford to draw any attention to ourselves. We can’t afford to get into a fire fight. Or get surrounded. We need to get in and out before anyone or anything knows we were even there."
Kenji nodded. "It's like Bruce Lee used to say; ‘it's the art of fighting without fighting’."
Kenji liked to say that whenever he got the chance. He would even imitate Bruce Lee’s voice and his mannerisms and everything.
"We need to be invisible," Daniel continued. "Only use the guns if we absolutely need to. If you have no other choice."
Like I said before, in a war, or any situation for survival, you constantly weigh up the risk and the reward.
Is the reward worth risking your life?
If the answer is yes; you better hold on.
I was terrified. My hands were shaking and I couldn’t get them to stop.
We were about to risk our lives.
We were about to raid the nearby town of Hunter. We knew it would be dangerous. We knew there would be infected in there, hiding, waiting for us. But we had no choice. We needed food. We needed water.
CHAPTER 7
We left at daybreak the next morning. We had about a twenty mile walk to the town. Daniel kept reminding us, that we’d have to walk the same distance back; each step away from the house was a step we would have to take back. It was a huge trek.
A huge risk.
Especially if we didn’t find any food or water.
I don’t think he was saying that to get us down in the dumps or anything, I just think he was making sure we all knew what we were getting ourselves into. This would be no walk in the park.
We followed the creek that ran through the property.
We walked in silence.
After about ten miles we came to a huge open-cut mining operation. The operation consisted of three massi
ve mines. They were basically three extremely large holes in the ground.
We stopped and huddled together. Daniel said we needed to climb to a vantage point so we could see the mine. Just in case.
"Was this on the map?" I asked.
"No."
We climbed out of the creek bed and picked a spot to observe the mine. From our vantage point we could see the three open-faced mines, the offices, the warehouses and storage sheds. The buildings were laid out in a grid like pattern.
"What do they mine out here?" I whispered to Jack.
"I have no idea."
"Metals like zinc, silver, lead and iron," Daniel answered. "Some of them are coal mines. Some of them are uranium mines."
The whole western edge of the closest mine was in ruins. Without proper maintenance it had crumbled. The two other holes had filled with water. The office buildings and the storage sheds looked run down as well.
"Do you think there are any survivors down there?" I asked.
"Not sure," Daniel answered.
"It looks like they shut down the mine," Jack said. "I’m guessing all the workers would’ve gone home."
Both Kenji and Daniel were using the scopes on their rifles to scan the office buildings. So I did the same. At first glance it appeared to be deserted. But down near the storage sheds I thought I saw something move. It was almost like a small, concentrated dust devil. It was more like a horizontal tornado than anything. If than even makes sense. It was very dark. Practically black.
Where The Dead Men Lie (The Secret Apocalypse) Page 3