Torn Apart (18 page)

“
The water system is circular,” he
continued. “Water has to be flowing. Stagnate water is no
good.”

Doctor Hunter also had a gun pointed at us.
They were taking no chances. He threw us a pair of handcuffs. “Tie
yourselves together. To the railing.”

The handcuffs he gave us were stained with
blood.

“
Look familiar?” he
asked.

I had a bad feeling I knew what he was going to
say.

“
These are the handcuffs you used to
tie me to the morgue fridge at North Sydney Hospital. Do you know
what I had to do to escape from that hospital?”

The blood on the cuffs had dried to a deep
brown.

“
The infected had broken into the
hospital,” he said. “There were more inside the morgue fridge. They
were about to break free. I was trapped. No way out. Do you know
what a person is capable of when they are faced with certain
death?”

“
We had no choice,” Maria said. “You
tried to kill us!”

“
Kill or be killed,” he said. “It is
the way of the world now. And I guess, it always was the way of the
world,” he paused, looked at his left forearm, where his hand used
to be. “I thought I knew. I thought I knew what people were capable
of. But now I truly know. One of my tools, a surgical saw was
within reach. I used it to cut through my arm. Cut myself free. I
only blacked out twice.”

He opened the ice box and retrieved what
appeared to be a surgical saw. “This is the very one. I carry it
with me now, wherever I go.”

He tossed it over to us.

It landed at my feet, clanging loudly on the
wooden floorboards of the boat.

“
You may use it, as I
did.”

He was taunting us.

“
What did you do with Kim?” Maria
asked. “We saw you. In that town. You captured Jack. You were with
Kim. Where are they?”

“
Capture? We did not capture Jack.
We rescued him.”

“
Whatever. Where are
they?”

“
They are safe. For the
moment.”

“
What are you doing to that man down
there?” I asked. “What is in that ice box!?”

The old man dropped his bottle of rum. He tried
to pick it up but he just kicked it further away. When he finally
did pick it up, he threw it overboard. “Do not judge me! You must
free yourself from the judgment of others and of yourself if you
truly wish to survive. You have no right to judge me. No right. We
are surviving. That is all.”

“
You’re eating him, aren’t you?” I
said. “You’re going to eat Ben. You’re going to eat us!”

“
Not her,” the old man answered,
pointing a bony, wrinkled finger at Maria. “The Doctor says we are
not allowed to eat the blonde.”

“
You’re crazy!” Maria
said.

“
No,” the old man said, defiantly.
“We are not. We are not. We know what this is. We know what we have
to do.
We have massive warehouses of food
down here. But the supplies are cut off now. The infection. The
airborne strain. We went hungry for the first few weeks. The pain
was awful. It made it hard to think. All we did was sleep. We knew
we couldn’t survive for much longer. So we made a
choice.”

I shook my head. “What choice? This is not a
choice.”

“
We are afraid. Of dying. Of
starving. We will survive. We will endure. We will do whatever it
takes. The human spirit is capable of such amazing feats of
strength and endurance. It can survive almost anything. It adapts,
it gains strength from the smallest, most insignificant things.
These things give us hope. Hope gives us the strength to live, if
only for one more day. You have been hungry, yes? We are doing this
out of necessity. We are doing this to live. Survive.”

Doctor Hunter lowered his head. “You don’t
know. You weren’t here. You don’t know what it was
like.”

“
We’ve gone hungry too,” I said.
“We’ve barely had enough food or water. We were struggling. Same as
you. Same as everyone.”

“
I had been living on this boat for
over a month,” Doctor Hunter continued, ignoring me.
“
He would ferry me back to the docks, back
to the inner-sanctum, so I could continue my research. But I was
living, sleeping, eating on the boat. I no longer trusted the
General or his men.
There were rumors that
civilians and research assistants and non-military personnel were
being murdered in their sleep or taken away, thrown into the
labyrinth.
”

“
Labyrinth?” I asked.

“
I can’t continue my research if I’m
hungry,” Doctor Hunter added. “Too weak to think, too weak to
concentrate. I can’t fix this if I’m dead.”

I closed my eyes and looked away. I honestly
thought I was going to be sick.

“
Our goal, our mission,” he said,
shaking his head. “Mission. It’s amazing to even think in those
terms now. To have a mission, you need to be organized. From top to
bottom. You need to have goals. Plans. Orders. We have none of that
now. Everything is gone. It happened so quickly.”

“
What happened?”

“
Our mission was to find Maria. The
General’s men had intercepted intelligence reports that indicated
Maria was still alive.
There were reports
of activity, three hundred miles south of here. In the town of
Hope. There were survivors. They sent in surveillance drones. They
found her. Maria Marsh. If I could capture her, if we could secure
her, we would be allowed to stay, we would be allowed to live. She
was the answer to our prayers. Kim had been living in the research
facility. She was proving to be quite useful. And she would
guarantee Maria’s cooperation. Unfortunately, we did not find
Maria. We found Jack. Kim vouched for her brother. She said we
could use him to lure Maria to us, force her to cooperate. The area
was becoming increasingly dangerous. We had to fall back. Sometime
during the night we were hunted down by several rogue nano-swarms.
Part of the convoy broke away, to distract the swarms. They were
ambushed. They never made it. And when we finally made it back
here, there had been a containment failure. The General had ordered
a Lockdown.”

“
Yeah,” Maria said. “You brought
infected people back here. In those tanks. They got loose. Haven't
you learnt from your mistakes?”

“
We needed them,” Doctor Hunter
answered, defending his methods. “To continue our research. We must
know our enemy.
But now
I’m starting to think the General no longer cares about our
research. I’m starting to think he doesn't care about any of it.
Not anymore. But you,” he said pointing to Maria. “You. The General
will take notice now. He will.”

“
How can you be so sure?” I asked.
“What if he’s gone totally insane?”

“
If I prove my worth,” he said. “If
I prove that I can fix this mess, he will allow me to
live.”

Maria shook her head. “I’d love to help,
really, I would. But remember the last time we met? You tried to
kill us. You tried to harvest our organs. Believe me, I want to
help. But I don't want to be cut up into tiny pieces.”

“
I won't hurt you,” Doctor Hunter
said. “You have my word. We will need blood samples from you. Maybe
conduct and MRI of your brain. But you will not be harmed. I
promise.”

“
And what about Rebecca?” Maria
asked.

Doctor Hunter was silent for a moment. “I
cannot guarantee her safety.”

Could we trust this guy? Maria and I knew it
would eventually come down to this. Maria would eventually be
turned into a science experiment. But I had always hoped it would
be under slightly better circumstances. Doctor Hunter had turned to
cannibalism. He had killed. And continued to kill.

And there was something else. It’s hard to
explain. He wanted to use Maria to create an anti-virus, but it
wasn’t so he could stop the Oz virus from spreading. It wasn't so
he could save the world. It was so he could save himself. There was
something about the distinction between those two motivations that
made me feel uneasy.

And of course, for me, the unfortunate part
about all of this, was even if they kept their word and did not
harm Maria, I was still as good as dead.

“
You need to promise me,” Maria said
after a while. “Promise me that you won’t hurt my
friends.”

“
I’m afraid it’s not up to me,”
Doctor Hunter said. “General Spears is God down here. It is up to
him.”

“
Where is Jack!?” Maria shouted.
“Where are you keeping him?”

“
And what did you do with Kim?” I
asked.

“
Trust me,” he continued, “They are
safe for the moment. Kim was our last great success. Her body. Yes,
they are safe for the moment. And w
e are
safe for the moment. For how long? I do not know. This is the
safest place to be. On the water. We are isolated from the rest of
the dwindling population down here. The outbreak occurred in the
research and residential areas. It was a catastrophic containment
failure. I am starting to think we have been the victim of
sabotage. All along. I know the virus moves fast. I know it is
deadly. But every time we are close, every time we make a
breakthrough, we have been met with disaster. It is too much. But I
believe everything happens for a reason.”
Doctor Hunter
looked at his forearm.
And then back at us. “Yes, I truly believe everything happens for a
reason. My body is just a vessel. My knowledge will ensure my
survival, my immortality. I can bargain with the General and I can
teach survivors like Charles here. Together we will survive. My
knowledge. His body. It is a symbiotic relationship. It’s funny.
The Oz virus, once it takes over, it creates a sort of symbiotic
relationship with the primal part of the brain, the reptilian part.
It stimulates certain areas, it stimulates the adrenal glands. And
it completely destroys other areas. The frontal lobe. The
neo-cortex. It is truly amazing. We created a new form of life. A
new predator. A new weapon.”

“
So what are you going to do now? I
asked. “What’s the next step?”

“
I am going to hand you over to
General Spears. Our cooperation will ensure our survival. It will
buy us freedom from his wrath.”

“
Wrath?”

“
He still commands a small but
formidable force of Special Forces soldiers.”

“
I told you,” the old man said,
“
This boat. This is the last refuge down
here. Don't get off the boat. Don’t ever get off the boat. I told
you. You should stay on the boat. You will be happier here. Lots of
people have stayed on this boat. Now they keep me company. Their
ghosts. Their spirits. Their souls. I am never alone. Would you
like to keep me company?”

The old man had cabin fever, I thought. He
hadn’t been outside in a long time. Hadn’t seen sunlight in a long
time. That’s gotta mess with your mind after awhile. But as long as
Doctor Hunter was with us, he would control that maniac. He would
protect us. Or at least, he would protect Maria. I had a feeling I
was about to be offered as a sort of sacrificial lamb.

“
Why are you doing this?” I asked
Doctor Hunter. “Why are you helping him?”

“
He is giving me asylum. Like I
said, it is a symbiotic relationship. It is fair.”

“
Yes, asylum,” the old man said.
“You girls should prepare yourself. The General’s men will be here
soon.”

Right on cue, three bright red flares were
fired high into the sky, lighting up the cavern. The glow from the
flares turned everything an ominous red. They had been launched
from a tug boat.

“
They are here,” the old man
said.

The tugboat approached slowly. We could see
shadows moving around on the deck. Suddenly a rope was thrown over
to us. The rope had a grappling hook attached. The grappling hook
latched onto the hand railing of the fishing trawler. They had us.
They immediately began to tow us along.

The movement was sudden and violent.

The old man was thrown off his feet. He dropped
to his knees and dropped his gun in the process. It slid to my
feet.

I picked it up with my free hand.

I did not hesitate.

He looked at me. His eyes said that he was not
ready to die. And in the split second before I blew his brains out,
he begged me to let him live. Pleaded with his eyes.

He spoke, “No…”

He was about to say something else. Present his
case for life.

But I was not ready to listen. I was not ready
to be merciful. Not when he had killed innocent people. Eaten
innocent people.

No. I was not ready to be merciful.

I was ready to kill.

I squeezed the trigger and the bullet made a
mess of his face and his head.

His life was ended. Because he did not deserve
it.

I aimed the gun at Doctor Hunter. We had a chance to kill him once
before. We didn’t.

Was it a mistake?