Salvation: Secret Apocalypse Book 5 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (18 page)

We run. It is the only thing we can do. It is our only choice.

Kenji says we
have to move. “Keep moving. Do not stop.”

He tells us to
be quiet. As quiet as we can possibly be.

The further we
run, the darker it gets. The light from the entrance fades quickly. Kenji
retrieves a torch from his pocket and switches it on. Ben does the same with
the torch on his shotgun.

The infected are
chasing hard. They are gaining on us.

The death squad
has moved into the cafeteria, and they’ve probably locked themselves inside the
massive walk-in pantry. As a result, they are no longer killing any of the
infected. We can’t even hear any gunshots.

This is bad.

“How the hell do
you know where we are going?” Jack says to Kenji.

He whispers this
question as loud as he dares.

“I’ve studied
the maze,” Kenji answers. “We just need to follow this main corridor. If we
veer off, we’ll get lost. We’ll become trapped.”

We continue
running, staying in the main corridor, ignoring every little side passage.

A few hundred
feet in, the corridor is lit up with red emergency lighting.

No need for
torches.

Kenji switches
his torch off and looks over his shoulder to make sure we are all still together.

Thomas is out in
front. Jack and Anna and I are following closely behind. We are all bunched in
together. Our breathing is loud and heavy and panicked. Ben is bringing up the
rear. Once again, he is struggling. He eventually slows to a jog. And then he stops
altogether. He turns, raises his shotgun.

We can hear the
infected. Their screams are echoing through the maze, bouncing off the solid
concrete walls. Concrete walls that are splattered with blood. In the red glow
of the emergency lighting, the blood looks black.

Kenji skids to a
stop and then sprints towards Ben.

We all stop,
wondering what the hell Kenji is doing. Thomas keeps running.

Kenji grabs
Ben’s shotgun, pulls the barrel down. “No,” he whispers. “I told you. It’s too
loud.”

Ben gives Kenji a
look that says,
you’ve got to be kidding
me
. “Buddy, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they already know
we’re here.”

“If we keep
moving, we can lose them. The maze will help. We can use the layout to our
advantage. It will confuse them. But if you keep firing that shotgun, they will
be able to track us easier. Faster. We need all the time we can get.”

Ben lowers the
shotgun completely. “Fine.”

“Come on,” Kenji
says. “We need to keep moving.”

Ben continues
running. We pick up the pace and catch up with Thomas

“What the hell
were you doing back there?” Thomas asks.

“Making sure Ben
didn’t fire his weapon,” Kenji says. “Making sure we have room. Making sure we
have time.”

“Do we?”

“Not really.”

“Great.”

Eventually we
arrive at a fork in the corridor. Again, we come to a stop. Behind us, the
entrance to the labyrinth is now a small, bright dot. We can see shapes and
shadows running towards us. We can hear those shadows. Howling and screaming.
Fortunately, there’s not too many.

“Which way?” I
ask.

“Left,” Kenji
answers. “At the next fork we will need to go right. Always alternate.”

“How many
forks?”

“Five.”

“And then what?”

“This corridor,
this part of the maze opens up into the central chamber. A massive area. It’s
almost like an arena.”

“What’s in the
arena?” I ask.

“Warehouses,”
Kenji answers. “Training facilities. Training grounds. Bad things. Monsters.”

“Bad things?”
Jack says. “Monsters? Maybe we should avoid the arena?”

“No choice,”
Kenji says. “We have to go through there. It’s the only way.”

“I knew you were
going to say that,” Jack says as he puts his hands on his head, taking deep
breaths, trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible. “So basically, we’ve got
the infected chasing from one direction, and God knows what, waiting for us in
the arena?”

“By the time we
reach the arena,” Kenji explains. “All these directional changes should confuse
the infected. It should buy us some time.”

I take another
look back towards the entrance. The door to the labyrinth begins sliding shut.
The bright spot is extinguished, like a weird solar eclipse. We are now locked
inside. We are now trapped. We cannot go back. Not that going back was ever an
option.

We have to go
forward.

Would we survive
this?

I don’t know. I
don’t want to think about it.

“Follow me,” Kenji
says, “Stay close. Stay quiet.”

“So where
exactly are we going?” Thomas asks.

“I just told
you,” Kenji answers. “We need to get to the arena.”

“And then where?
We can’t stay in here. We are so screwed. Where are we going to hide? Where are
we going to live?”

Thomas is still
in shock. He is beginning to panic. He is beginning to lose his mind.

“We need to move
through the arena,” Kenji says. “And then we need to get to the research labs.”

“What if we’re
attacked?” Ben asks.

“If we’re seen,
or attacked, we need to run. You fire that shotgun and you’ll have the entire
horde on top of us. We are walking into a hornet’s nest here. We need to be
quiet. We need to be invisible. And we need to keep moving.”

“This is
suicide,” Thomas says. “This is crazy. We’re dead. We’re so dead.”

Kenji pushes
Thomas up against the wall. “You need to keep your shit together. The maze will
protect us. It confuses the infected. They struggle to move through it. They
become trapped. This is how we will survive. By outrunning them. Outsmarting
them. Understood?”

Kenji then looks
at all of us. He makes sure we’re all on the same page. Once he knows that we
understand, that we know to be quiet, that speed and stealth are our only
weapons, he begins running. And we have no choice but to trust him and follow
him deeper into the labyrinth.

And as we run
further into the darkness, I can’t help but admit to myself that I am terrified
and afraid of the dark, and I think the worst part is not knowing.

The worst part
is the waiting.

Waiting for death.
Waiting for the monsters to jump out of the dark and attack you and eat you and
possess you.

Once upon a
time, I was watching a horror movie with Kenji. Watching movies with Kenji was
probably one of my most favorite things to do in the whole world. Before the
whole world ended.

Has the whole
world ended? Or is it just this one part? I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll
ever find out.

Anyway, we were
watching this Japanese horror film. I can't remember what it was called. It was
about demon possession. It was kind of like ‘The Exorcist’. The movie terrified
me. Not the actual demons. But the waiting. The not knowing. The staring into
the dark. Walking and running through the dark.

The movie held
you in suspense. It held you in a choke hold of suspense and it wouldn't let
you go.
There were moments in that
movie where I just wanted it to be over. I just wanted the monsters to jump out
and reveal themselves.

Just get it over
and done with.

But they, the
ghosts, the demons, the monsters, were patient. Terrifyingly patient. And I
couldn't take it. I was watching through my fingers, sunken into the couch,
hiding behind Kenji.

And then the
monsters and demons finally reveal themselves, and the suspense and the fear is
released, like a spring loaded trap.

And the only
thing left to do is jump.

Scream.

The only thing
left to do is run.

The main corridor we are running down opens up. We have arrived at the central
chamber of the labyrinth. We have arrived at the arena.

And the arena is
massive. Like, plains of Africa huge. I can’t see where the arena ends. We are
standing at the top of a large and steep set of stairs. From our vantage point
we can almost see everything. Almost. The far side of the arena is too dark.

To get to the
arena floor we will need to climb down.

Directly below
us, are multiple rows of large, long warehouse type structures. It kind of
looks like an industrial complex. Or maybe the Warner Bros lot. Either way
these buildings look out of place in this labyrinth. They look too artificial,
too man made. I know this whole place is manmade, but the labyrinth itself has
an ancient feel about it. Like it was made by the pharaohs of Egypt. The modern
design of the warehouses is in stark contrast to the rest of the place.

Scattered around
the warehouses are light posts. All of the lights are red. Past the warehouses
is the vast, open expanse of the arena.

Beyond that is
darkness.

I point down to
the warehouses. “What’s the deal with the red lights?”

“Red light
doesn’t mess with your night vision,” Kenji says.

“Huh?”

“These
warehouses, this whole labyrinth is a training facility.”

“Training
facility?”

“Just follow me.
I’ll show you.”

We climb down
the extremely steep set of stairs. Some steps are so large and so steep, we
literally have to get down on our hands and knees and climb down. We eventually
make it to the ground floor of the arena, and from down here, the warehouses
look a lot bigger.

They tower over
us.

We quickly make
our way to the nearest warehouse. The building has massive sliding doors, like
an airplane hangar. We would never be able to open these by hand. Luckily, we
didn’t have to. Off to the side there is a small doorway. Kenji forces it open
as quietly as possible and leads us inside.

Kenji leads us
through the warehouse. Inside are mountainous piles of sandbags and bullet
casings. There also appears to be quite a lot of standalone walls. Some of
these walls are arranged into squares, so that they form separate rooms. Others
are just scattered about the warehouse randomly.

We climb a steel
grated set of stairs and move into a small room on the second floor, at the
rear of the warehouse. We can see out the window of this small room to the rest
of the arena. I can’t help but wonder what’s out there, waiting for us in the
darkness.

Kenji moves up
to the window. “As I said earlier, the labyrinth can protect us. It confuses
the infected. We are safe for the moment. But we can’t dwell in any one place
for too long. If we stay in one place for too long, they’ll find us. So catch
your breath. We’re moving out soon.”

Ben is doubled
over. Anna moves over to him to make sure he’s all right.

Ben pushes her
away. “I’m fine.”

“So what the
hell are these warehouses doing in this place?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Jack
says. “They’re giving me the creeps. I feel like we’re about to stumble across
Frankenstein’s lab or something.”

“The warehouses
are training facilities,” Kenji repeats. “For the Special Forces soldiers. For
the death squad. Those walls down there, they’re all moveable and adjustable.
This allows the soldiers to create different layouts and different simulations.
They can even mimic the designs of real world buildings.”

“Why would they
need to do that?” I ask.

“For practice,”
Kenji says.

“So this whole
labyrinth is a training facility for Special Forces soldiers?” Jack says.

“I think so,”
Kenji answers. “At least, that’s what I think it was originally.”

“Originally?”

“I’m not sure.
But maybe this whole place was designed to house the infected. So the soldiers
could train and prepare to fight against a new kind of threat. A new kind of
enemy.”

“You really
think so?” I ask.

He shrugs his
shoulders. “Maybe.”

“So how the hell
do we get out of here?” Anna asks.

“As far as I can
tell, the labyrinth is like a massive hexagon. The outer areas are designed to
confuse and trap. But there are express lanes into this central arena.”

“Like the
corridor we just ran down?” I say.

“Exactly. This
central arena contains the warehouses, a few other training facilities and the
catacombs. The exit and entry points are the military prison, the civilian
prison and the research labs.”

“That’s great
and everything, but where the hell are all the infected?” Thomas asks. “How do
we know we’re safe right now?”

“We’re not safe,”
Kenji says. “But at the moment, the infected are all trapped in the western
corner of the labyrinth.”

“So we are
safe?” Thomas says.

“No. They will
eventually find us. So we need to keep moving. From here we have to get down to
the catacombs. The exit point we need to reach is the research lab.”

“How far have
you been?” Anna asks.

“I’ve been to
the end. To the civilian prison. To the research labs. We can make it. If we’re
quick. If we’re quiet. We can make it.”

“So you’ve
beaten the labyrinth,” Anna says. “You solved it? You found a way out?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, you’ve
actually been to the end,” Thomas says. “You actually found a way out, and you
came back?”

Kenji nods.

“You are crazy.”

“What’s at the
civilian prison?” Ben asks.

“Nothing. It was
empty.”

I get the
feeling that empty didn’t actually mean empty. Kind of like how dead doesn’t
really mean dead anymore.

“What about at
the research labs?” I ask.

“Not sure,”
Kenji answers. “It looks like a regular lab. I didn’t get a chance to explore
it very far. It’s too big. Multiple areas. Multiple levels.”

This sounded
promising.

“Wait, I thought
the research lab was cut off?” I ask. “I thought it was contaminated with the
airborne strain of the Oz virus?”

“I guess it’s
possible,” Kenji says. “It’s a huge facility. We’ll need to be careful.
Hopefully the contaminated areas are contained and quarantined.”

“So if we make
it to the research lab,” Jack says. “We should at least have a chance of
survival. We should have a chance of getting out of this hell hole and finding
Maria.”

“Yeah. It’s
really our only option. We can’t stay in here. It’s too dangerous.”

Jack moves over
to the window, scratching his head. “So how do we get there?” he asks. “We’re
going to have to cross this arena, right?”

“Sounds risky,”
Ben says. “We’ll be out in the open.”

“No,” Kenji
answers. “We can’t cross the arena. We have to go down.”

“Down?”

“To the
catacombs.”

“Catacombs?”
Jack says. “That does not sound good.”

“It’s the only
way. We can’t cross the arena.
It’s
way too exposed.
There are too many things waiting to ambush.”

I know Kenji has
learnt this the hard way.

“We have to go
down,” he continues. “Into the catacombs. It’s the only way.”

“So where are
the infected now?” Thomas asks. “How do we know we're not going to run right
into them?”

“We don’t know.
So we have to be careful. The infected are scattered right throughout the
labyrinth. But like I said, most of them, the main hordes, are situated in the
western corner. They are trapped.”

“Trapped?”
Thomas asks. “How?”

“Once you
deviate away from the main corridors, the labyrinth turns into an incredibly
intricate maze. Each section is made up of endless tunnels. They’ll be trapped
in there for hours. Maybe days. Unless we give them a reason to come and
chase.”

“Unless we make
noise,” Jack says.

“Exactly.”

“OK, so the main
hordes are trapped, but what about the rest of the infected?” Anna asks. “What
about the ones that were chasing us?”

“We can handle
one or two,” Kenji answers. “I can handle them.”

Anna is not
convinced. “Oh yeah? Well, that's great but we're not all zombie killers. And
what happens when we run into more than one?”

“As long as
we're quiet, we won't see the bigger hordes.”

“Wait,” Thomas
says, “Main hordes? Hordes as in plural? As in, there’s more than one group?”

“There are two
main groups. And like I said, at the moment they are both located in the west
and south-west wings of the labyrinth. The western corners are the most
isolated part of the labyrinth. They are as far away from our current location
as possible. If we are quiet, if we keep moving, they won't catch us, they
won't find us.
We’ll be long gone by the time
they come looking.”

“And how do you
know that's where they are?” Thomas asks.

“Because I was
just there,” Kenji answers.

Thomas is still
against this whole plan. And so is Anna.

“I'm sorry,” Anna
says. “This is too dangerous. I don't like it. We need to go back. I’m not a
huge fan of the prison. Actually, I hate it. But it's worked so far. It's the
safest I've been in weeks. I know it's a terrible way to live. But it's about
survival. Those guys, the soldiers, they won’t be there. They won’t. They’ll go
back to wherever they came from. We can still make it work. We can reinforce
the entrance. We can survive in our cells.”

I’ve come to
realize this is the main problem of surviving the plague, surviving an
extinction level event. You are constantly fighting a war on multiple fronts.
One against the infected and the monsters. And one against ourselves. It’s hard
work getting everyone to agree to do the same thing, especially when that thing
requires you to risk your life.

Before Anna can
convince anyone to go back to the prison with her, we hear footsteps. We
feel
footsteps.

We all rush over
to the window and look out into the arena.

We can’t see
anything. It’s too dark.

But we can hear
the heavy footsteps. We can feel the vibrations through the walls of the
warehouse. We can smell something. The stench of rotting flesh.

We hear a noise.
A roar. A moaning sound. It almost sounded like a whale’s call. Long. Deep.

The strange
noise echoes around the dark chamber.

Anna points out
the window. “There it is.”

I look to where
she is pointing but I don’t see it.

“Where?” Kenji
asks.

“It’s right
there. In the far corner.”

“I don’t see
it.”

“It’s looking
right at us,” she says. “It’s right there.”

I can’t see anything.
Not a damn thing. Just darkness. But my imagination takes over. I see eyes. I
see a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. I see the thing that attacked us in the
town of Hope and at the military outpost. I see the thing that killed Daniel’s
team of mercenaries in the middle of Sydney. I know it is big. I know it is
impossibly strong. I know it is a hunter.

It is looking
right at us. We need to go. We need to go right now.

More footsteps.
Loud. Heavy. Fast.

Getting faster.

“It’s coming,”
Anna whispers. “It’s coming right for us.”

Kenji is looking
out across the arena. His face is a picture of concentration. It’s almost as if
he is immune to fear. It’s almost like he is no longer afraid of death.

He is used to
it.

He is fine
living with it.

He is friends
with it.

“How do we get
into the catacombs?” Ben asks. “Where the hell do we go?”

“Down,” Kenji
says. “We go down.”

The footsteps
are getting faster. Louder.

We climb back
down the stairs and we get the hell out of the warehouse just in time. The
monster crashes through the massive building, destroying the entire structure
with ease.

Kenji pushes us
forward and leads us out into the floor of the arena. “This way!”

I feel exposed.
I feel like I am being watched and hunted. I feel like we are about to be
ambushed. “I thought you said we shouldn’t be out here?” I ask.

“I did,” Kenji
says. “We can’t cross it. We have to go down. The entrance to the catacombs is
a trapdoor. It should be around here somewhere.”

“Should?”

The monster is convinced
we are still hiding inside the ruins of the warehouse. This buys us some time.

Kenji locates
the trapdoor.