The Sixth Level (17 page)

As soon as we broke through the gate of the parking lot, we smashed into a group of infected, splattering half decomposed bodies and limbs all over the road. For the first few blocks, it was indeed a bumpy ride, just as we predicted.

There wasn't as many infected as there was before, though. It was like they had attacked en masse and then retreated to whatever hiding place they'd come out from. Like a swarm of bees, returning to a hive or something.

"We can't really afford to look for your friends, for Maria right now," Daniel said as he swerved away from a group of infected, keeping his foot on the accelerator. "We need to regroup, make a new plan."

"Yeah," I said, as I held on to the dash board and the seat, even though I didn’t really want to agree with him.

I felt like we were giving up on the mission and giving up on my friends. I felt like I was abandoning them again, like I did before.

I knew it was crazy to feel like that. We weren't giving up; we were just trying to stay alive. We had only been in the city for a few hours and yet we had already come so close to death, so many times. I mean, since this morning absolutely nothing had gone right. Nothing had gone to plan. And I’d somehow managed to survive a plane crash, an emergency parachute drop and being shot with a machine gun. Not to mention the horde of infected psychopaths and that giant monster thing that nearly got to us.

When I thought about that cold hard fact, when I thought about how dangerous this city was and how many times we’d almost died, I found it hard to believe that my friends were still alive, that they had survived this long on their own. How old was the recording of their call for help? Nearly two weeks? In this hostile and unforgiving environment two weeks was an eternity. How long could someone survive here before the infected found them?

I had to push these thoughts out of my head. I had to believe. I had to have faith in my friends and their ability to stay alive, to protect and help each other survive.

Daniel swerved hard again. He maneuvered the Range Rover up onto the sidewalk because the road was blocked with abandoned cars. We were running over infected left right and center; chunks of flesh were exploding on to the hood of the car and on to the windshield.

Daniel told me to keep an eye out for that big thing. If we came across that, we wouldn't be able to smash into it. We'd have to hit the brakes, turn around and try and outrun it.

We turned down another main road and headed west. We were determined to drive in the opposite direction to the Sydney Tower and get as far away from the city as possible.

Same plan different day, I thought to myself.

It was tough going, even when the number of infected began to thin out, the roads were clogged with debris, and abandoned cars and rubble.

We eventually came to the ANZAC bridge. It led out of the city and across one of the bays of Sydney Harbor. It was a gateway to the western suburbs.

But sadly, just like the Sydney Harbor Bridge, it too had been destroyed.

"This bridge was named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp," Daniel said flatly. "ANZAC for short."

The bridge had two bronze statues posted at the western end. One of an Australian soldier and one of a New Zealand soldier. Eerily the statues had survived the demolition. They looked like silent guardians, solemn and solitary, grieving for lost casualties of war, paying respect to those who had paid the ultimate price.

I wondered how many people had died here, crushed beneath the bridge, blown to bits by the military’s containment protocol. I guess the only way to get out of the city now was to find another way. We’d have to back track and head further south where we didn't need to cross a bridge to get out of the city. Maybe we could drive towards the airport and then head west?

Daniel checked his GPS device. He said there was a main road, a motorway not far from here. It would lead west. Not sure if it would lead us anywhere near Maria but at least it would get us further away from the city. At the moment that was our top priority. It was really our only priority. If we didn’t get away soon we would be completely surrounded. And whatever that thing was that got Ethan and the others, that thing would find us and it would rip us in half and throw us to the horde of infected.

We turned around. Daniel's voice was calm but I could tell by the way he was driving he was scared. He wanted to get out of the city as quickly as possible. He turned the car sharply and the tires screeched as the back end of the Range Rover swung out behind us.

There was no clear path. There was no easy option. All the motorways and highways leading out of the city were clogged with abandoned vehicles. There was no getting passed them. We'd need a tank or a bulldozer. And even then it'd take forever.

We were winding our way through the city streets looking for an alternate route. The inner city suburbs were disorientating and dangerous. The narrow streets, the high density housing estates, the buildings, the alleyways. There were literally millions of places for the infected to be hiding and waiting to ambush us like they did before.

So Daniel kept his foot on the accelerator. We were still running over a few infected, although there seemed to be even less now. The low visibility wasn’t helping matters either. Sometimes the dust was so thick we could only see a few feet ahead and Daniel was forced to slow down.

After about twenty minutes of driving around it became obvious we were lost. Daniel didn't want to stop the car in the middle of the city so I was trying to read my GPS device and read the street signs at the same time. I was failing miserably. I couldn't make out where we were on the map and Daniel was driving too fast.

After awhile I’m pretty sure we'd just driven around in a massive circle.

I started to panic.

And Daniel was getting frustrated with my inability to read the map and navigate us out of the city. But it was hard to read the map when he was driving so fast. Plus the visibility was so poor we could barely see where we going. And every second street sign had been knocked over.

We turned down another street. It was in bad shape. There were giant potholes and craters in the road. Cars were piled up everywhere like some giant had come through and shoveled all the cars into great, mountainous piles. Daniel finally slammed on the brakes and checked his own GPS device.

"I'm sorry," I said.

He took a deep breath. "Don't be. It's fine. This place is Armageddon right now. It's fine. We just need to plan a route and get the hell out of here."

There was a large street sign directly in front of us. It read: Cross City Tunnel.

According to the sign, the tunnel led out of the city and eventually to the airport. I'm not sure if we wanted to go there but at least it would get us away from the city. Maybe we could find a chopper and fly out of here, I thought hopefully.

The road above the tunnel was completely blocked by cars and great big chunks of concrete. There were even some military tanks that had been left behind. But luckily there was a small gap at the entrance to the tunnel, between the abandoned cars and the debris.

Daniel put the car into gear and approached the tunnel slowly. On our left was an abandoned military Humvee. Mounted on its roof was a massive machine gun.

"Should we take that? I asked. "Might come in handy."

"Probably out of fuel," Daniel answered. "That’s why it’s abandoned. And the windscreen wipers are pointing up, probably to warn people, let people know that it’s out of fuel. It’s not worth the risk."

"What about that gun on the roof? Could we take that?"

"It’s a fifty cal. machine gun. It’s big, heavy. Maneuverability is our biggest advantage right now. Hauling that thing around would only slow us down."

Daniel applied pressure to the brakes, slowing down even more. "But now that you mention it, there might be spare ammo or guns inside."

He drove over so we were parallel to the Humvee. He put the car in park and pulled the hand brake on but kept the engine running.

"I'm going in," he said. "Hand me the rifle."

I handed him the rifle as he scanned the surrounding area. He looked out the rear windscreen to make sure there was no approaching infected. "If you see any signs of danger, anything at all, beep the horn. OK?"

"OK."

He then opened his door and jumped out. His movements were quick.

He opened the rear door of the Humvee and climbed up into the armored vehicle and disappeared from view. And even though I knew he was right there, I started to freak out a little.

I did not want to be alone again.

The infected could come from anywhere; we could be surrounded without even knowing it. I had to keep reminding myself, that the low visibility was also helping us, that it was giving us cover, that it was concealing us.

A few seconds later Daniel emerged with a spare rifle. It looked very similar to the one he already had.

He jumped back in the Range Rover and handed the spare rifle to me. "And hey presto, now we have a matching set," he said. "Seems to be fully loaded. This takes our ammo total up to three clips. Ninety rounds. But we still have to be careful. If we come across any resistance, we still need to use caution, all right? Be cool, calm and collected. And if we have to use these guns, remember..."

"I know, I know," I said cutting him off. "Short, controlled bursts."

"All right then."

"I’m cool as a cucumber," I said extremely unconvincingly.

Daniel smiled and put the car back into gear and we continued slowly towards the tunnel.

As we moved closer, Daniel furrowed his brow in concentration, squinting his eyes. He was staring at the dark mouth of the tunnel. I guess he was trying to see into it, or figure out if it was safe to drive through.

There was only one way to find out. Not that I really wanted to find out or even go underground for that matter. I mean, there was only one way in and one way out. Sounded like a death trap to me. But unfortunately, bypassing the tunnel wasn't an option either.

There were just too many cars piled up above ground and too many craters. The road was completely impassable. The other alternative was to keep driving around and find another way out. But that could take forever. It was proving to be an exercise in futility. Too many roads were clogged and damaged. We'd get lost again for sure. And the longer we spent in the city, the more likely we were to run into trouble.

I looked back at the sign. It said the tunnel led to the airport. That would be good. It would be an express lane out of the city. It wasn’t much but it was something. It was a small glimmer of hope.

"The airport," Daniel said. "That would be ideal."

"Yeah, but do you really want to go in there? Into a dark, confined space? God only knows what’s in that tunnel. Anything could be hiding in there."

"But staying here and doing nothing is just as bad as driving around and getting lost," he pointed out to me, even though he didn’t need to.

And just as he said that, off in the distance at very far end of the street, maybe two or three blocks away, that thing, that giant thing, slowly walked passed, appearing and disappearing between the buildings. We could only see its silhouette. It was just a shadow as it walked through the city. The red dust seemed to billow up and around its massive frame. It walked slowly and purposefully, like a predator stalking its prey. We could feel the road vibrate and shake as it walked.

We had to go. Even though it was a dark and confined space and designed to be a death trap, it was our only hope. Once again I shuddered as I remembered all those people who were trapped and massacred inside the Sydney Harbor Tunnel.

But we had no choice. Compared the to the city streets, the tunnel might just be the safer option.

Chapter 21

"It's coming," Daniel said, with a surprisingly calm voice. "It’s getting closer. We have to go. The tunnel, it’s our only hope."

"Are you a hundred percent sure? I mean, it could be a goddamn death trap. We don't know what’s in there."

"We can't stay out here with that thing walking around," Daniel said as he pulled the handbrake on. "Wait here."

"What? What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I’m gonna check it out," he said as he snatched the rifle back out of my hands and switched on the torch. "Maybe see if we can roll that abandoned car further out of the way. See if there are any other wrecks blocking our way, further in."

"It’s too risky!"

"Look, we're in the middle of a warzone, everything we do is risky. We have to take chances. Doing nothing will get us killed. We have to take risks but we have to be smart about it."

Unfortunately, he had an excellent point. And the way he talked about taking risks and being smart reminded me of Kenji. I guess they must’ve had similar survival training.

"OK, well, I'm coming with you," I said as I picked up the other rifle.