Where The Dead Men Lie (The Secret Apocalypse)

by Harden, James

  "There was something else," I continued. "I don't really know how to put this. It looked like a spider made from metal.

  "Metal?"

  "Like scrap metal and spare car parts. It ambushed us in a junk yard."

  Ben furrowed his brow like he didn't understand. "And you lived?"

  "Yeah, we got lucky."

  "How did you stop it? How did you kill it?"

  "We didn't. The garage it was hiding in collapsed on top of it."

  "Do you know what it was? Maria asked Ben. "Have you seen one?"

  "Yeah. From a distance. Nano-bots have the ability to manipulate metal. I watched these nightmares stalk, ambush and kill a lot of highly trained soldiers. Word from the military guys is that it's a side effect of the nano-swarms. Apparently they have the ability to manipulate metal and elements at the atomic level.

  "What are you saying?" Kenji asked. "That it can bend and move metal. Shape it?

  "Yes."

  "But what has this got to do with that thing up there?" I asked. "The black smoke or whatever the hell it is."

  "It's the same thing. Different form."

  "Same thing? How?"

  "No one knows for sure. Like I said, I’ve only heard the rumors. Ghost stories. But you," he said pointing at Daniel. "You know everything. Do not lie to me."

  Daniel remained silent for a long time. Jaw clenched. "What exactly are you excusing me of?"

  "I'm accusing you of lying. Lying to your friends here. Hiding. Where are you from? What are you doing here? You came in after the quarantine, didn’t you? After the shit hit the fan. What are you doing here?"

  "I told you. I’m here for Maria. She’s the only person on record who has shown immunity to the Oz virus. That’s my objective. That’s my mission."

  "And everyone else is expendable, right?"

  "You gotta be kidding me? I don’t have to put up with this. I don’t have to listen to these accusations. I’m not crazy. These are my friends. We’ve been through too much."

  "But they’re your orders, right? Friends, family. Lovers. All expendable."

  Maria pulled Daniel away from Ben. "Guys, we need to work together. Or none of us are getting out of here alive."

  Daniel didn’t respond. Ben continued to stare him down.

  "Guys! Come on," Maria repeated. "None of this matters right now. We need to work together. We need to take care of that thing up there."

  "Like, right now." Kenji said.

  Kenji wanted to take care of this thing immediately. So did Jack. I can’t blame them. I wanted to do the exact same thing. And if that meant running through the streets as live bait. Fine. This argument could wait.

  "All right," Ben finally said. "We get up to the bell tower first. We locate the nano-swarm and then make our move. We’ll use the walkie-talkies the men left behind to communicate. I doubt they’ll need them anymore."

  "And Maria stays up in the bell tower," Daniel added. "She stays out of harm’s way."

  "Fine," Ben agreed. "Let’s just get this over with."

  CHAPTER 30

  No one said a word as we raced up the stairs of the bell tower. Ben told us that we needed to locate the black smoke first, before the sun went down. If it got dark, we would have no chance of seeing it.

  We also needed the walkie-talkies that were strapped to the belts of the dead men. We had a total of five. One for each of the guys, one for Ben. And one for me. Maria didn’t get one, but then again she didn’t want one anyway.

  Once we were at the top of the bell tower, Ben wasted no time and fired two harpoons down into the street below. One harpoon on each side of the road. The metal harpoons crunched loudly into the sidewalk, shattering the concrete. The harpoons then extended upwards, telescopically, to a height of about nine feet. At the tip of each harpoon was a flashing green light. This meant that they were armed and ready.

  "Now all we need to do is wait for it to come within range," Ben said "When that happens, I’ll fire the third harpoon which will activate the EMP field. You have to use the first two harpoons as a gate. Lure it to you. And then run through them. Once it gets close. I’ll fire the third harpoon and activate EMP field."

  The guys made sure the walkie-talkies were all tuned to the same frequency. Then they gave a nod to each other. Jack was going to take the east. Daniel, the west. Kenji the north. I had to fight back the urge to hug them all; I had to fight back the feeling that this was the last time I would see them.

  The memory of Ed being dragged to his death only hours ago by the black smoke was still fresh in my mind. His gargling scream kept replaying in my head, over and over. I had to remind myself that these boys were tough. We had been through a lot together. What’s one more roll of the dice?

  Daniel led the way, down the stairs, down into the street.

  Kenji followed.

  Jack was last. Before Jack, left, Maria grabbed and pulled him back, gave him a hug and a kiss for good luck. She was fighting back tears. Jack was still kinda dopey from the sedatives. He didn’t say anything. He turned and ran down the stairs.

  Ben was leaning against the corner of the bell tower, peering over the arched window. He had his spear gun launcher thing resting on the ledge, ready to fire the third and final harpoon. Down below, the guys ran down into the main street. And then headed off in different directions.

  Our plan was simple and stupid. Not to mention dangerous.

  The guys were acting as live bait.

  They were going to draw the nano-swarm to them and then run back towards us. When they black smoke was in range, Ben would fire the third harpoon.

  Simple. Dangerous.

  The only problem was we had no idea where the nano-swarm was. It seemed to be hiding. The only reason we knew it was still in the town was because every now and then we could hear the unmistakable hissing sound that it made as it moved through the air.

  "How many times have you done this before?" I asked Ben.

  "Never."

  "Excuse me?" Maria asked. "Never? How do you know what you’re doing?"

  "I’ve seen the recon teams do it."

  "Recon teams?"

  "Yeah. Special teams that monitor and track the nano-swarms. The recon teams are messed up dudes. Putting their lives on the line every day."

  "So did you," I reminded him.

  "Yeah but we would avoid hostile areas. The recon teams would go into the infected towns and the cities on purpose, every single day."

  "Why?"

  "Research, I guess. Watch the infected, see how they act. Where they go. What they do. They did the same thing with the mutations and the nano-swarms when they first started to appear. Let me tell you, the aggressive ones, they are absolutely terrifying. I saw one of these things take out a whole team one time. Just tore through them like they were nothing."

  "How did you see it?"

  "We went into a town to gather some supplies. The town was empty. Recon team showed up about thirty minutes later. They had tracked a nano-swarm to our location. Damn thing came outta nowhere. Took the whole squad, to bring it down. They were firing harpoons everywhere, in all directions. EMP’s were going off one after the other. They finally trapped it. Brought it down. The only reason I survived, along with my scavenger team was because we stayed down, kept quiet."

  "Um, how many harpoons do we have?" I asked.

  "Three."

  "So, three harpoons basically means one chance right?"

  He nodded.

  "And what if you miss?"

  "I won’t miss."

  "But what if you do?"

  He paused. Thought about it. "If I miss. Run."

  CHAPTER 31

  We waited and waited.

  The nano-swarm wasn’t cooperating.

  We could see it every now and then, slithering, between the houses on the edge of town. But it seemed to be completely avoiding the guys.

  "What’s it doing?" I asked.

  "I don’t know," Ben answered.

  "
How does it interact with the world?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Like, can it hear us? Or can it see us? How does it hunt? What senses does it use?"

  "Don’t know. Probably a combination."

  "How the hell are we going to get it to come here?" Maria asked.

  "I don’t know."Ben answered. He then spoke into his walkie-talkie. "Daniel, can you see it?"

  "Negative."

  "It just went behind that row of houses on the edge of town. It’s right near your position."

  "I don’t see it."

  "It should be right there."

  I looked up and saw the black smoke, heading away from Daniel’s position. It was now heading for Kenji.

  "No," I whispered. "It’s on the move again. It’s heading towards Kenji."

  Kenji came on the radio. "Where? I don’t see it either."

  Ben swore under his breath. "It’s not playing along. It’s not cooperating."

  "Well, what did you expect it to do?" I asked.

  "I expected it to attack."

  Maria pointed. "It’s over there."

  "It’s in the north-western corner of the town," Ben said into the radio. "It’s near those houses."

  Once they had new instructions, the guys would then change direction, moving towards the nano-swarm. And just when it looked like the guys had it cornered, it slithered away and found a new hiding spot.

  We didn’t know it at the time but the damn thing was toying with us. It was playing with us, enjoying the game of cat and mouse, hide and seek. But then after awhile, it got sick of the game. That’s when things got interesting. It was like the swarm changed its behavior. Instead of hide and seek, it turned into search and destroy. Hunt and kill. Now that I think back, I realize it was trying to lure us all together so it could take us all out at once.

  "We need another body down there," Ben said. "I need you. I need you to corner it."

  My eyes widened. "Me? Are you insane? I’m not running around down there. No way."

  "Fine. You can fire the last harpoon. I’ll go down there."

  He handed me the harpoon gun. I took it from him and nearly fell over. It was heavy. Too heavy for me to hold up to my shoulder and aim. I would be useless with this thing.

  "And remember we only get one chance," Ben added.

  I handed the launcher back to him. "Fine. What do you want me to do?"

  "I need you to meet up with Daniel. Try making some noise. Try and lure it into the main street here. Get it as close to the first two harpoons as possible. Remember the closer it is, the better the pulse will work."

  He gave me one of the EMP grenades. "Only use this if you absolutely need to. And remember, the grenade will only stun it."

  I took the grenade, felt its weight. Felt my heart race.

  "Be careful," Maria said. "We’ll be up here, helping you the whole time. You won’t be alone."

  She was trying to make me feel better but by that stage I had gone completely numb. Her voice, sounded distant, like she was a hundred miles away.

  I swallowed hard, gathered up all my courage and what was left of my energy and walked down the stairs back out on to the street.

  I looked back up to the bell tower. The sunlight glinted off the harpoon launcher. Ben was ready.

  But was I ready?

  The first two harpoons had been fired into the sidewalk on either side of the street. They had pierced through the concrete. A little flashing green light on the tip of the harpoon indicated they were armed and ready.

  Just past the harpoons was a blood trail leading into the alley between the pharmacy and the hardware store. And I kid you not; a goddamn tumbleweed blew across the street. I couldn’t believe it. What next? A shoot out at high noon?

  I looked up at the bell tower again. Ben was scanning the horizon.

  I spoke into my walkie-talkie. "Guys, it’s Rebecca. I’m down on the street with you."

  "What?" Kenji asked. "Get back up there. We can handle this."

  "No you can’t," Ben said. "The more people down there the better. All you gotta do is, flush it out and draw it to me."

  Yeah easier said than done, I thought.

  "I see it," Ben said. "Jack, it’s moving towards you. Near that large warehouse."

  "Ah, OK." Jack replied. "Now what?"

  "It went inside."

  "Um, do you want me to follow it in?"

  "Yes. Wait. It’s moving again."

  "Where? I asked. "Can you see it?"

  "Yeah. It’s moved to the edge of town. You need to draw it to you."

  "How the hell do I do that?"

  "I don’t know. Maybe try making some noise?"

  I walked towards the alleyway and the blood trail, where the nano-swarm had dragged Ed to his death. At the mouth of the alley were two small garbage cans. I picked up the lids and started banging them together as I walked up the main road back towards the town square.

  Just before I arrived at the town square I noticed a general store.

  The sign out the front read:

  Johnson’s Family General Store. Since 1836.

  There were a few notices stuck to the front door about the Oz virus. The military safe zones. The evacuation routes.

  A sign read:

  Closed until further notice due to Oz virus.

  The front window had been smashed in. There was hand written apology left behind, signed by someone. The signature was illegible.

  The note said:

  "Sorry, Rob. We needed the water. I’ll reimburse you when this is all over."

  I walked inside the store. It had probably been picked clean early on, but there might be some stuff that had been left behind.

  Bottled water. Canned food.

  Anything.

  It was too good a chance to pass up.

  "Rebecca, you there?" Ben asked.

  "Yeah."

  "I think you should get back out in the open."

  "I’m just looking for water. I think there might be some in the storeroom here."

  "No. Get outside now."

  I paused in the center aisle. I could see some cases of bottled water towards the back of the store. "Let me just grab these, first." I said, as I picked up the bottles.

  "Get to the street, now. It’s coming. It’s coming right for you. You need to get to the street and start coming back towards me."

  I felt a cold chill.

  It’s coming right for you.

  "Are you sure?" I asked nervously.

  "Run. Come on!"

  I reluctantly dropped the case of water. But I figured if I needed to run, it would only slow me down. Besides, we could always come back for it later.

  I made my way to the front of the store, my feet crunching on the broken glass at the entrance.

  I paused. Looked left and right, up and down the street. I couldn’t see anything.

  But I could hear it.

  The hissing noise, like a snake. The noise became louder and louder, like a rattle snake that had been threatened. Ready to attack.

  It seemed to grow louder and then fade.

  "Where is it?"

  "I don’t know. I lost it."

  I walked out into the street.

  The town square was still empty.

  The rope that had been used to tie me up was still hanging from the light post. It was swinging gently in the breeze.

  Another tumbled weed blew past. Darker in color. Almost completely black.

  A flash of silver.

  It was not a tumble weed.

  The thing I thought was a tumbleweed began to distort and grow. It expanded in width and height, like black smoke from a raging oil fire, until it filled the entire town square.

  "Looks like you’ve got its attention," Ben said.

  "Yeah, now what?"

  "Run!"

  I didn’t really need to be told. I was already backing away when I asked the question. A heart beat later; I turned and ran. I ran back down the main road, back tow
ards the harpoons. I could see their flashing green lights one block away. It wasn’t far. I could totally make it.

  I glanced over my shoulder. The black smoke was following. But it was taking its sweet time, like a predator that knew its prey was cornered. It was sort of zigzagging down the street after me. I wondered how fast it could move. Would I be able to get back to the harpoons before it got to me?

  "Come on," Ben said. "You can make it. Just stay calm."

  I picked up the pace and started to sprint. I figured it was now or never. I wanted this to be over as quickly as possible. I was done with being live bait. I looked over my shoulder again to make sure it was still following but what I saw scared the hell out of me. It was doing more than just following.

  It was chasing.

  It was moving.

  Fast.

  Way faster than I could run.

  In a matter of seconds it had caught up to me. A split second later it had moved ahead of me, and cut me off. I skidded to a stop. "Shoot! Do it now!"

  "I can’t!" Ben answered. "You’re in the way. If I fire from this angle the harpoon will fly right through the smoke and impale you."

  He was right.

  And after watching the first two harpoons pierce and smash through the concrete sidewalk, I did not want to be anywhere near where he was shooting. It would probably, most definitely kill me.

  "You need to bring it closer!" he said.

  "How?"

  "Make it chase you again!"

  I was out of options. The thing had me cornered. It could move like lightning. And could kill just as quickly. I did not want to end up like Ed.

  The smoke seemed to grow taller, rising up in front of me like a cobra rearing up, ready to strike.

  I have no idea what came over me. Maybe I was still a little dopey from being drugged. Maybe I was dehydrated and starving. A combination of these things was making me brave and courageous and stupid.

  I threw the EMP grenade at the black smoke. There was a bright bluish, purple flash. The nano-swarm seemed to disperse slightly. It lost its solid shape.