Torn Apart (16 page)

“
To where?” he asked, cutting me
off. “There is nowhere left. Nowhere I can take you. This boat is
your last refuge. The military area is in Lockdown mode. No one
gets in. The residential area is in Lockdown. It is off limits now.
I’m not sure how many civilians we lost. But trust me. It was bad.
It was a killing field. A massacre.”

“
They killed the
civilians?”

“
Yes. Such a cruel twist of fate.
They were lucky to have survived the fire of the Oz virus. Survived
the panic. They made it here. And then just like that, their fate
was decided. There was some debate about how useful the civilians
were being. Were they just a drain on our resources? Some were
proving to be quite useful. Such as the big man. Some of the other
scavengers were a great asset to us and the General as well. They
could bring in all manner of supplies. But now they are all
gone.”

“
How did you know he was a
scavenger?”

“
I saw the mark on his wrist. And I
remember hearing stories about a gladiator. Who else could it
be?”

“
A gladiator?”

“
Yes. A true warrior. Like I said,
some of the scavengers were useful. He was one of them. But the
others? The General was convinced they were just a drain on
resources.”

“
A drain on resources? What are you
talking about? How can you talk like that? How can you say
that?”

He took a deep breath. “This is the way of the
world now. Down here, everything is limited. If someone is not
contributing to the ecosystem, to this new society, they have no
purpose. They cannot be allowed to remain, to exist. There was an
outbreak in the residential sector. Nobody knows how the virus got
in. But it did. General Spears ordered the Lockdown immediately.
The Fortress is now essentially isolated and cut off from the
outside world. Life support systems have been
prioritized.”

“
Prioritized? What the hell does
that mean?”

“
It means all non-essential systems
have been shut down. Power is reserved for the military sectors
only.”

“
So the civilians, the survivors?
They just cut them off? Turned off their power?”

“
I was fortunate enough to have
survived. I was lucky that I had access to this boat. I have food
supplies. Enough to last quite a while. And of course I can always
supplement my supplies. But yes, because of the Code Black, the
outbreak, because the General ordered the Lockdown, he has
sentenced us all to a slow death.”

“
This changes nothing,” I said. “I
still need to get Maria to safety. I still need to find my
friends.”

“
It is a bad idea,” he repeated. “I
cannot be certain, but there is talk that the General will not wait
for hunger and dehydration. There are rumors that he will open the
residential area. And the prison. Let the infected roam this
Fortress. Let the virus eliminate the few remaining
survivors.”

“
Prison?” I asked. “Excuse
me?

“
There is a prison down here. This
place, this entire facility was designed to be self-sufficient. It
is essentially an underground bio-sphere. It was designed to be a
microcosm of society, of the world and the environment. This water
is the fuel source. It is an underground lake. The biggest of its
kind in the world. With this lake, we can create power, oxygen. We
have farms. We can grow crops. Food. We can be self-sustainable.
Well, we could’ve. Not anymore.”

“
You have farms down
here?”

“
Yes.”

“
So if you have an underground water
source, and farms and crops, why the need for scavengers? Why has
the Lockdown condemned everyone to death?”

“
The Lockdown procedure killed all
these processes. Like I said, all power is now prioritized and
reserved for the military sectors. And with no one to tend to the
farms, they will die. The crops won’t get planted, they won’t be
harvested. The cycle cannot continue. Eventually the food supply
will run out. Eventually we will all starve.”

“
I don’t intend on staying here
until I starve. I don’t intend on dying down here. I need to get to
the General. I need to get my friends. You have to help me. Please.
You have to take me to the military head quarters.”

The old man lowered his head and thought about
his options. “I can take you to the docks at the research facility.
It should be the least dangerous place, the least infested. They
had security measures. But still, my advice, stay on the boat.
Never get off the boat.”

“
I don’t have a choice. I need to do
this.”

“
Very well. I can take you there.
I’ll take you to the docks. But first, you need to eat. Trust me,
you will need your strength.”

Maria woke up a few minutes after I did. She was even more
disorientated. Her shoulder hurt like crazy. She felt sick from the
pain. She must’ve hit the water extremely hard for her shoulder to
have been dislocated while she was wearing the NBC suit. I kind of
felt bad for pushing her out of the train.

Maria had taken the protective suit off. It was
hanging over the side of the boat, drying out like a wet
suit.

The old man led us into the dining room area.
We sat around a small dinner table and he handed us some small
sealed foil bags.

“
You girls need to eat up. You’re
both way too thin.”

“
We haven’t had much food over the
past couple of months,” I said.

“
What are these?” Maria
asked.

“
MRE’s. Meals Ready to Eat. Courtesy
of the military. Enjoy them. They are our last.”

“
Your last ones?” I said. “We can’t
take these.”

“
You can. You need to
eat.”

Even as hungry as we were, the MRE’s were hard
to eat. Especially cold. “Wow, these are not the best,” I said,
reading the ingredients list on the side of the packet.

Apparently I was eating spaghetti
bolognaise.

“
What did you get?” I asked
Maria.

“
Mushroom risotto. I think. What did
you get?”

“
Cold spaghetti
bolognaise.”

Maria then started singing a song. It was
called ‘Cold Spaghetti’. Apparently it was a ‘Wiggles’
song.

“
What are you singing?” I
asked.

“
It’s a Wiggles song,” Maria
answered. “You know, cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti.
No?”

“
No. I’ve never heard that
one.”

“
You missed out.”

“
Singing is good for the soul,” the
old man said. “You should sing every day. As much as you
can.”

“
So what’s your name?” I
asked.

“
Charles,” he answered as he
retrieved a large bottle of Rum from one of the many cupboards in
the dining area. He took a long swig, spilling some down his
chin.

“
Nice to meet you,
Charles.”

“
Nice to meet you too,” he
replied.

“
And thanks for saving us,” Maria
said. “We owe you big time.”

He waved us off. “Think nothing of it. I was
just doing what anyone would’ve done. And besides, you girls were
fine. But the man, he was in trouble.”

“
Well, we’re glad you saved him
too,” I said. “He means a lot to us.”

Charles was quiet for a few minutes after that.
He took another swig of rum. His shoulders were hunched forward.
His eyes were starting to glaze over. He stroked his
beard.

After awhile he said, “I remember the big man.
He lived down here. He was a scavenger. He was highly regarded
amongst the soldiers and the civilians. Not as a leader or anything
like that. But just as a pillar of strength. I guess it’s not hard
to see why. He is an intimidating person.”

“
Where is Ben?” Maria asked. “Can we
see him?”

“
He is below deck. But you cannot
see him. Not until he has regained his strength. Not until the
blood transfusion is complete. It is good for the muscles. Good to
keep everything fresh.”

“
How do you know how to do that? Are
you a doctor?”

“
No. I've had help. A teacher. He
has lost the ability to practice his profession. So now he teaches
me. His body is failing him. But his mind is sharp. We help each
other. When the General ordered the Lockdown, he ordered the deaths
of all non-essential personnel. I was forced to hide. I ran. I took
this boat to the darkest corner of the lake. And I hid. I kept
quiet. Luckily, with this boat, I am a king. Water is used as both
protection and a source of life. It gives us power. Feeds us.
Protects us. You need water. But we are stuck. We can't get out. We
can't leave. So we live on the boat. Like I told you, don’t ever
get off the boat.”

He took another long swig of his
rum.

Both Maria and I had stopped eating.

“
What happened down here?” Maria
asked.

“
Chaos happened. Evil. The General
was forced to be ruthless. Like I said, when the General ordered
the Lockdown, he ordered the deaths of all non-essential personnel.
Civilians. He killed them all. It was cold blooded, methodical.
Calculated. First, he herded all those people from the residential
area into the storage warehouses. There they remained for days with
no explanation. No food. No water. And when all those people became
angry and outraged, starving and desperate, they tried to storm the
blast doors. It was useless. They were dead from the moment the
General had locked them up. He could’ve let them starve. I don’t
know why he didn’t. Maybe he was being merciful. Finally, the
General opened the blast doors. Some people thought we had been
saved. That sanity had prevailed.”

“
Wait, you were there?”

He took another drink of rum and began tearing
the label off the bottle. “Yes. I was considered non-essential. I
was expendable. And I knew what the General and his men were going
to do. I think a lot of us knew. Some were already walking back
from the doors. Yes. They knew. I don't know how they knew, but
they knew. The General and his men were waiting for us on the other
side of those doors. They were heavily armed. Bullets tore through
the crowd of people. It was a killing field.”

“
Why?” Maria asked. “Why did they do
it? Why kill all those people?”

“
Simple. They didn't want us eating
their food. They didn’t want us turning into infected monsters. As
far as they were concerned, we were a drain on their resources, we
were fuel for the virus. We represented a threat to their survival.
So we had to be dealt with.”

“
How many people?” I
asked.

“
Hundreds.”

“
How did you survive?”

“
I hid behind a body. A pile of
bodies. I used the dead as a shield for the bullets. I hid there
all night. I didn’t dare move. For as long as I live I will never
forget the sound of bullets tearing into those dead bodies. When
they were finished they sealed the doors up. They got the hell
out.”

“
So how did you get out?”

“
I was lucky. There was a man, a
strong man. The community, everyone down here looked up to him. He
was fearless, or at least he gave the impression that he was
fearless. So yes, we looked up to him. He gave us strength. And
hope. When the machine gun fire had stopped and the General’s men
had cleared out, I found him. He was lying on a pile of bodies. He
had so many holes. So many bullet wounds. There was so much blood.
Yet he was still alive. I couldn’t believe it. I stayed with him. I
didn’t know what else to do. He told me not to worry. He had this
weird calming effect on me. He said that the virus had been
released; he said that it had gone airborne. He said it was better
this way. A few hours later, a military research team came back.
For specimens and test subjects and god knows what else. They moved
through the piles of dead like vultures. Taking what they
wanted.

“
I managed to sneak through the
blast doors. I escaped with the man. I carried him out. By this
time, he was barely alive. I dragged him to this boat. I picked the
bullets out. One by one. So many bullets. He had died long before I
got them all out. And by then, he no longer resembled a man. He was
just a piece of meat. And yet still, in death, he gave me strength
and hope. Don't you see? The great ones. Even in death, they give
us strength and hope and courage.”

Hearing the story about the massacre and the
execution had crushed what little hope Maria and I had for finding
our friends alive. How could anyone survive something like that?
Maria had lost her appetite completely. She was obviously thinking
about Jack. Had he been executed? Had he been deemed
‘non-essential’? Had he been shot in the back with a machine gun
and left to rot?

What about Kim? Or Kenji?

How many people were left alive down
here?

“
Where is Ben?” I asked.

“
He is below deck. He is resting.
Hopefully tomorrow you can see him. In the meantime, we all need
rest.”

He showed us to a small bedroom below deck.
There were two narrow bunk beds built into the wall. I took the
bottom bunk. Maria took the top bunk.