Torn Apart (9 page)

“
Where’s your backpack?”

“
I’m not sure. I think I dropped it
when we were attacked by the infected.”

“
Purge will commence in thirty
seconds.”

The circular door was almost closed.

We were leaving our run too late.

Ben swore under his breath. “This is our only
chance,” he said. “We run. If you see the bag, pick it up. Get the
EMP grenade ready.”

“
Purge will commence in twenty
seconds.”

Ben had moved over to the hatch of the tank. It
was go time.

I was hesitant. “Wait. What if I don’t find the
bag?”

“
If you don’t find the bag, keep
running.”

“
And?”

“
And pray.”

He turned the handle, opened the
hatch.

“
Purge will commence in ten
seconds.”

Ben pushed me out of the tank.
“Run!”

We sprinted for the tunnel. I held my breath.

The circular blast door was a huge thing made
of steel and concrete. It was almost completely closed. I guess Ben
had waited for the last possible moment. Less chance of the
nano-swarm following us into the subway tunnel.

As we ran, I saw my backpack. I had dropped it
when we had been attacked by the infected. I bent down and scooped
it up in one movement and kept running.

We couldn’t see the nano-swarm. But we could
hear it. The hissing sound.

It was over in the opposite corner of the
hangar somewhere. It was still moving in and around the
surveillance drones.

I began fumbling around in my bag to find the
EMP grenade. But it was difficult to search for it, feeling for it
blindly while sprinting as fast as I possibly could.

In the end we didn’t need the
grenade.

We had timed our run to perfection.

Ben made it to the doorway and turned around.
“Forget the grenade! Just run!”

I slung the backpack over my shoulders and
dived for the tunnel. The doorway slid into place, closing and
locking.

It had nearly crushed me.

One of the straps of the backpack was caught. I
had to pull it with all my weight to get it free.

But we had made it.

We were in the tunnel. A dark tunnel. We were
breathing hard. Ben was coughing and wheezing. I couldn’t see, but
it sounded like he was spitting up blood.

“
What… what’s stopping that thing
from getting in here?” I asked.

“
The heat from the purge should be
enough to kill it.”

“
Should?”

“
I’m not really sure. But it can’t
get through this door. At least not right away. The door is
massive. It’s vacuum sealed. Pressurized. It can't get in here. Not
unless it starts eating through the metal.”

“
And what's stopping it from doing
that?”

“
Nothing. But that would take it a
long time. You saw how thick the door is. It’s at least six feet
thick. Solid steel. It’ll give us a good head start.”

“
Great. That's real great. Real
reassuring.”

“
Not trying to be reassuring. We’ve
just bought ourselves some time. And that’s as good as we are ever
gonna get. Let's go. We got about a day’s walk.”

“
What? A day? How long is this
tunnel?

“
Not sure. The train that transports
passengers back and forth is a bullet train. It travels at about
two hundred miles per hour. Sometimes faster. It takes at least
fifteen minutes to reach the residential area. Ten minutes to reach
the lake.”

“
There’s a lake down
here?”

“
Yeah. This place was designed to
survive an extinction level event. Water is essential. There are at
least three of these entry points that I know of.”

I still couldn’t believe it. “So there’s a lake
down here?” I repeated.

“
Yeah. It’s huge. It keeps this
place running. There’s a massive bridge that spans across the lake.
This place really is a modern wonder. An unbelievable achievement
of human engineering and endurance.”

I
looked at
the train track. It was deep and wide. Heavy duty.

“
So how deep does this tunnel go?” I
asked.

“
Not sure. Miles. Like I said, deep
enough to survive an extinction level event. Nuclear. Asteroid.
Zombies. Nano-swarms. Whatever.”

Ben was trying to give me the layout of this
place but he was struggling to talk. He was breathing
heavily.

“
Are you all right? Are you going to
be able to make it?”

“
No choice. We have to walk in. Not
sure how we are going to cross the lake. But we’ll deal with that
when we get there.”

Ben was a tough son of a bitch, but at that
moment he was weak from blood loss and dehydration. The only thing
that was keeping him going, was his desire for revenge, and his
hatred of the people in charge.

“
OK,” I said. “But before we go
anywhere, we need to find Maria. The ladder she climbed down has
got to be close. Where would that maintenance shaft lead to? It
should be around here somewhere.”

“
Yeah. It should be right near the
entry.”

I switched the torch on my rifle
again.

Finally found the door for the maintenance
shaft. The sign on the door read:

Authorized engineers only. Emergency access.
Door is alarmed.

But something was wrong.

The door was open slightly. Just a
crack.

I ran to it.

Opened it.

I should’ve been more careful. There could’ve
been anything hiding behind that door, waiting for me. Zombies.
Nano-swarms. Crazy bearded soldiers.

I pointed the rifle inside, shone the torch up
and down.

It was a narrow maintenance shaft. An emergency
exit and entry point. The ladder went straight up.

The maintenance shaft was empty.

Maria was nowhere to be seen.

I began to panic. Maria was gone. She was supposed to have climbed
down this maintenance shaft. This door was supposed to be locked.
She was supposed to have waited here.

But she was gone.

To make matters worse, Ben was struggling. He
was getting worse. He had dropped to his knees. He looked like he
was having a goddamn heart attack. I couldn’t see how bad he was
because it was too dark. But he was definitely
struggling.

Maria had to be close by, I thought. But
where?

“
Where is she?” I asked Ben and no
one. “Where the hell is she?”

Ben did not respond.

“
Where the hell is she?” I repeated.
“What the hell is going on?”

I spun around. I looked deeper into the tunnel,
into the darkness.

“
Keep your voice down,” Ben
whispered.

“
No. I will not keep my voice down.
I don’t care if it’s not safe. I don’t care if infected zombies and
nano-swarms hear me and come and eat me. If we don’t have Maria, if
she is not alive, it’s all over. Nothing will matter. I won’t
matter.”

“
You said you were prepared to die
for your friends,” Ben said. “Sacrifice yourself. You came here
searching for answers.”

“
I came here because I wanted to
help. And we can help. As long as we have Maria.”

I was getting frantic. I was starting to panic.
We had all agreed to keep Maria safe. Above all else. And I had
stupidly risked her life by coming here. I had risked everyone’s
life by coming here.

And for what?

Maria had disappeared. I should’ve known I
wasn’t strong enough to keep her safe. Not in this world. We could
barely keep her safe when Kenji and Daniel were protecting
us.

Ben was still kneeling a short distance away.
Hunched over in pain. He spoke quietly. I could barely hear him.
“The Fortress is a refuge from the virus and the infected and the
apocalypse. It is self sustainable. It is protected. It is a
paradise in a wasteland. But...”

He trailed off and coughed up some
blood.

“
But what?” I asked.

“
It is also a prison. A prison for
bodies. And souls. It is a nightmare. A place of torture and evil.
It is a place of love. And hate. Of good. And evil. You cannot have
one without the other.”

I couldn’t tell if Ben was looking at me. It
was too dark. I couldn’t tell if he was delirious from blood loss
or not.

Once again, I looked up ahead into the dark
tunnel. There was only one way to go.

Down. Deeper.

I gripped my rifle tightly with both hands,
even though it was out of bullets. I took a deep breath. I had to
find Maria. She couldn’t be far.

I was right.

Just then I heard a scream.

A girl’s scream.

I ran forward, around a slight bend in the tunnel. Up ahead there
was a train. There were four carriages. The two at the rear were
dark. The two at the front had their lights on. They were
blindingly bright in the dark tunnel.

I heard another scream.

“
Maria!”

Ben grabbed me from behind and put one of his
giant hands over my mouth.

“
Shh,” he whispered into my ear. “Be
quiet.”

I wrestled away from him. I didn’t have time to
be careful or quiet.

“
That was Maria,” I said. “It has to
be. She’s in trouble.”

“
Something is wrong,” Ben
said.

Ben doubled over again. He was too weak to
stand up straight. He looked like he was holding his guts in with
his hands.

He dropped to one knee. “The Lockdown,” he
said. “This track should be closed. It goes for miles.”

“
So?”

“
So there shouldn’t be any carriages
on the track. We are in the middle of nowhere. Something is
wrong.”

Another scream.

“
Yeah, something is wrong. Maria is
in trouble. I need to go and get her.”

“
Don’t do it. Not safe.”

“
No kidding. But I have to go. I
don’t have a choice.”

Ben grabbed me and pulled me back. Even as he
was lying on his deathbed he was still unbelievably strong. But I
needed to go. I didn’t care if it wasn’t safe. I didn’t care if it
was a trap. I didn’t care that there weren’t supposed to be any
carriages in the middle of this tunnel, miles underground, in the
middle of nowhere.

Maria was screaming out, in pain or for help, I
couldn’t tell. But I wasn’t going to let Ben stop me. He could
either shut up or come with.

“
Let go!”

I slipped out of his grip and pushed him with
all my strength. He fell backwards. Sprawled across the tracks. Now
he really did look dead.

I was just about to storm off. Maybe I
should’ve checked his pulse. But then he coughed so I knew he was
alive. At least for the time being.

“
I’m sorry,” I said.

“
Stick to the shadows,” he
whispered. “When you strike; strike hard. Strike fast. You will
only get one chance.”

I ran up to the rear of the train, hunched over, keeping low. Ben
was right. The train appeared to be a ‘bullet’ train. The front
carriage and the rear carriage both had an aerodynamic and
futuristic design. It gave the impression that it was built for
speed.
The two rear carriages were boarded
up. The windows were spray painted black. They were completely
dark.

I moved towards the front.
The lights inside the carriages were so bright,
they hurt my eyes. The passenger doors located on the side were
both open.

I moved up to the second carriage and peered
through the side door.

The carriage was empty. Sort of.

Empty of living people. No Maria.

But it was full of dead bodies.

Dead soldiers.

They lay slumped in the seats of the train.
Some lay in the aisle.

Blood covered their bodies and their armor and
helmets, and the inside of the carriage. Bullet casings covered the
floor.

I had no idea what had happened
here.

Did someone shoot all these
soldiers?

How?

They would’ve had to have taken them by
surprise. Unloaded with a machine gun when they weren’t prepared,
weren’t ready.

Maybe they had been asleep. Maybe they were
about to go out on a mission. Or maybe they were just coming
back.

I climbed up into the train and crouched inside
the carriage of death. I was surrounded by dead
soldiers.