Torn Apart (11 page)

So I needed to wait until he got nice and
close.

I would also need to make sure that I stepped
forward, so I was standing over Maria. If I stood back, there was a
chance that I could accidentally shoot her.

I could not take that risk.

All of this raced through my mind as the man in
the gas mask walked down the center aisle of the carriage, towards
Maria.

Strike from the shadows, I thought to myself.
Strike hard. Strike fast.

I was following Ben’s advice to the
letter.

This had to work. Failure was not an
option.

The man spoke. “Slow and methodical,” he said.
“You should have seen the look on their faces when they realized
how truly helpless they were. When they knew how insignificant
their lives were. They were trapped. They could not do a thing. Not
with all their strength and training. Even with all of this, with
all of their cunning and skill and force. They were helpless. You
can see this all in an instant. It flashes across their faces in
their last dying seconds. Flashes through their eyes.”

Maria remained quiet. She had stopped crying.
She was waiting for me. She wanted this over and done
with.

“
You cannot be allowed to live,” the
man continued. “You do not understand. You are too dangerous. You
are not fit for the new world. A world on fire.”

I peeked around the corner of the
doorway.

The man in the gas mask had gripped the knife
tightly in his right hand. He raised the blade and took a step
forward.

I made my move. I stepped out from the driver’s
cabin, making sure I was standing over Maria so I didn’t
accidentally shoot her. I made sure I was close to the man in the
gas mask so he would take the full force of the shotgun
blast.

The man in the gas mask froze. He had the knife
raised.

I aimed. Held my breath.

I took the shot.

I have never fired a shotgun before in my life. Not even when Kenji
and Daniel were teaching us how to shoot. I was too scared to try
after Jack nearly dislocated his shoulder. So to say that I wasn’t
used to the shotgun was an understatement. As Jack had once said,
“It kicked like a damn horse.”

It certainly did.

It kicked violently, causing the barrel to pull
up and to the left. The blast took down the man in the gas mask and
shattered some of the windows of the train carriage.

For a second my shoulder was numb and I thought
I had actually dislocated it.

The man had fallen onto his back about halfway
down the aisle of the carriage.

He lay there motionless.

I looked around for more bullets, but I
couldn’t see any shotgun shells. I moved towards him slowly. I was
now holding the shotgun as a baseball bat.

“
Is he dead?” Maria asked. “Please
tell me he’s dead.”

“
I… I don’t know. I think
so.”

I looked around for more shotgun shells but
again I couldn’t see any. I moved towards him slowly as I held the
shotgun like a bat, ready to swing.

I couldn’t see his face because it was hidden
by the gas mask. I tried to remove it but it wouldn’t
budge.

And then I saw why I couldn’t budge it. It was
sewn into his scalp.

“
Oh god,” I whispered.

“
What is it?” Maria asked. “Is he
dead?”

“
The gas mask. It’s stitched into
his skin.”

“
What?

“
The mask is sewn into his scalp and
his face.”

“
That is so gross.”

I moved his head slightly. It was stitched all
the way to the back. It was a messy job. Like he had done it
himself. How or why? I had no idea. It made me think that maybe he
had inflicted all those other scars on his upper body himself as
well.

“
Forget him,” Maria said. “He’s
dead. Hurry up and cut me loose. We need to get the hell out of
here.”

“
Wait. I need to be
sure.”

I tried to feel for a pulse but I couldn’t find
one. I couldn’t hear him breathing.

His chest was not moving.

“
What the hell happened to this
guy?” I asked.

His body was absolutely mutilated. His torso
was covered in scars. Cuts and burn marks. It was a
mess.

Maria was getting impatient. “Rebecca, come on!
Forget him. Cut me loose.”

“
The knife. Where is his knife?” I
asked.

“
Ah, I don’t know. He must’ve
dropped it.”

I scanned the immediate area for it. The knife
had landed near his head, under the seats.

I crouched down and reached for the knife,
keeping one eye on the body.

The knife had slid a fair way under the seats.
I had to stretch out to reach it.

“
Can you see it?” Maria
asked.

“
Yeah. Almost got it.”

I ended up getting closer to the body of the
man than I would’ve liked, but I eventually retrieved the
knife.

I quickly cut through Maria’s ties. She held
her wrists and rubbed them better.

I hugged her tight, held her close. I had
nearly lost her.

“
I’m so sorry,” I said. “I was so
scared.”

“
Don’t be sorry. It wasn’t your
fault. We knew the risks.”

“
Yeah, but still. I thought you
were…”

“
Don’t say it. I don’t want to think
about it.”

I nodded. We had to stay positive. We were
relying on each other for courage.

“
So what happened?” I asked,
pointing to the body. “Who the hell is that guy?”

“
I don’t know. It all happened so
fast,” Maria answered. “I climbed down the ladder. Felt like I was
climbing for hours. I was holding on tight. It was so dark, I
couldn’t see anything. I basically had to feel my way down. I
finally reached the bottom. I felt my way to the door, the
emergency access to the tunnel. But it was locked. So I waited. I
was so scared, just waiting in the dark for that crazy bearded
soldier. I was convinced that he was going to kill you. And I was
powerless to stop him, to do anything. So I just had to sit there
in the dark. Waiting. Not knowing. After a few minutes I thought I
could hear breathing. I heard footsteps. Boots crunching on gravel.
I thought it was the crazy soldier. But it wasn’t the soldier. It
was him,” she said, pointing to the man in the gas mask. “He
grabbed me. Pulled me on to the train. Tied me up. He told me that
he had killed those soldiers in the other carriage. He said they
were the elite. Trained warriors. And he killed them all. Killing
me would be easy.”

She paused. Took a deep breath. It’s not easy
to talk about someone wanting to kill you. “But he took his time,”
she continued. “I think he wanted to savor it or something. Like he
was enjoying it. He said he didn’t expect to see me. Not out here
in the desert. Not down here in this place. He said that my
presence proved to him that he was doing the right thing. It was
fate and destiny and chaos. He was crazy,” she said, shaking her
head. “But yeah, he killed all those soldiers. This guy is a mass
murderer. A killer. A psychopath. We need to get the hell out of
here. We need to get the hell away from this place.”

“
I could not agree more,” I
said.

“
Wait, how did you get away from
that soldier?” Maria asked. “How did you get down here?”

“
Big Ben showed up.”

“
What? He’s alive?”

“
Yeah. He said he got away just
before the outpost blew up. He figured we had done the same. He
came here for revenge. And in the process he saved me. For the
second time. He shot the crazy soldier with a rifle. Shot him right
in the head.”

“
Wait. Why does he want revenge?
Revenge for what?”

“
I don’t know exactly,” I answered.
“He said that they took something from him. His life. His
freedom.”

“
What does that mean?”

“
I’m not sure. But someone cut the
tattoo off his forearm. The tattoo of the barcode.”

“
Cut it? Like, cut the
skin?”

“
Yeah, they sliced it right off. He
thinks whoever did it is down here. They knew they needed a barcode
to get in. The barcode is the key.”

“
For the trap door?”

“
No. It opened a massive platform.
We descended down into this airplane hangar. It was bigger than a
football field. It’s absolutely massive.”

“
What is this place?” Maria
asked.

“
According to Ben, this is the
Fortress.”

Maria’s eyes lit up. “What? No way. This is the
Fortress? We found it?”

“
Yeah. The reason the vehicles, the
tank tracks had disappeared is because they were lowered into the
storage hangar. It’s the perfect camouflage. It’s the perfect
hiding spot. That’s why the dreadlocked woman and Ben said we would
never find this place on our own. It’s because this whole facility
is underground. Deep underground. I’m not entirely sure, but I
guess these train tracks lead to the central head quarters or
whatever.”

“
So we found it,” Maria said. “I
can’t believe it. We found it. We have a chance to find the others.
Jack and Kim and Kenji. They have to be down here. They just have
to be. Where else would they be?”

Maria’s spirits had been immediately lifted.
Suddenly she wasn’t so worried about cheating death. She was
determined to find the others. And I must admit, her confidence,
even if it was misplaced, it gave me strength.

I knew the odds of finding our friends down
here were slim to none.

And finding them alive?

I had to stop thinking about the
odds.

“
Wait, where’s Ben?” Maria
asked.

“
He’s back down the tunnel,” I said
motioning with my head. “He’s not doing so good.”

“
Well, we still need to get him. We
can’t just leave him here.”

“
Yeah, you’re right. Plus
he’s been here before. He knows this
place.”

“
Do you think we could use this
train?” Maria asked.

“
I think we should walk in,” I said.
“We don’t even know if this train works. And I have no idea how to
drive it. Do you?”

“
No. But maybe Ben does.”

“
I don’t think he’s in a position to
drive anything. He’s in pretty bad shape. I’m not sure, but I think
he’s dying.”

“
Oh.”

“
But we better go and get him,” I
continued. “Like you said, we can’t just leave him there to
die.”

“
What do we do about him?” she said,
pointing to the man in the gas mask.

“
Forget him. He’s dead. Let’s just
go and get Ben. And then we’ll figure out what to do
next.”

I looked back at the man in the gas mask. He
lay sprawled on his back. Motionless.

“
All right,” I said. “Let’s go. Stay
close. We need to hurry and then we need to get as far away from
here as possible.”

We began walking back to where Ben had
collapsed. We used the torch on my rifle so we could
see.

“
I should probably try and load one
of those empty magazines,” I said. “I hate not having any ammo.
We’re too vulnerable.”

Maria nodded. “Yeah, I agree. But we should be
safe down here as long as we keep quiet, right?”

“
I’m not so sure about that,” I
said.

“
Why?”

“
Back in the hangar, there were
infected people. And there was a rogue nano-swarm.”

“
A swarm? Down here? How did it get
in?”

“
I don’t know. It must’ve snuck in,
it beat the proximity alarm. It got through the blast doors just
before they closed.”

“
How did you get away from
it?”

“
When it set off the proximity
alarm, it set off a security failsafe, a purge.”

“
A purge?”

“
Yeah, basically the hangar turned
into a giant oven. A furnace.”

“
So it should be dead, or whatever.
It should’ve burned up, right?”

“
That’s the idea. But I don’t want
to take any chances. There were infected people in there as well.
They were trapped in the tanks. It was like the Special Forces
soldiers had gone out and rounded them up and captured them.
Brought them back here on purpose. We killed about twenty or so.
But there could be more. So we’ve got to keep moving. We need to
get as far away from here as possible. We need to get Ben and go
quickly.”

“
Good point.”

We picked up the pace. We ran back down the
track. It was a lot further than I remembered. A lot further. We
finally made it to Ben. He was still lying on his back. I hoped he
wasn’t dead. If he was dead we were screwed.

I knelt over him. “Ben!”