Land of Dust and Bones: The Secret Apocalypse Book 7 (21 page)

No further discussion of the plan took place.

We didn’t have time. I wish we did. Then
maybe we could draw a blueprint of the plan, draw the layout of the hangar. We
could get salt and pepper shakers and act the whole thing out. Where the hell
are we going to get salt and pepper shakers from?

Come
on Rebecca, Focus.

Marko is coming back. I know he is. He’ll
be racing back here on a goddamn motorbike, pushing its engine to the limit.
And behind him, chasing him, will be a horde of infected people that he has
rounded up, herded like cattle.

He will be leading them all here.

Right
here.

We needed to be long gone by the time he
gets back.

Kenji leads Jack and Maria back around the
corner, back to the side entrance so they can move through the corridor and
make their way to the barricaded door.

I tell Kenji not to wait for us. I tell him
that as soon as they get there, pour the fuel and get out. Get back to the
Landcruiser.

I say, “We’re out of here in five minutes.”

Kenji doesn’t say anything. He simply nods,
letting me know that he understands. He leads the others off into the dark,
disappearing around the corner of the hangar.

“Come on,” I say to Kim. “Let’s do this.
Let’s get this over with.”

I picture the plan in my mind. I imagine a
trail of gasoline, volatile and flammable, flowing underneath the doorframe,
between the gaps in the barricade.

I just need to grab a candle. Just one
candle.

Throw it in the fuel.

Start the fire.

Easy.

Ivan will retreat. He will cower in the
corner because he is afraid. Because as big as he is, as strong as he is, he is
terrified of fire.

We enter the airplane hangar through the
small doorway that’s built into the large sliding doors. The candle lit room is
all the way at the back. We quickly sneak through the darkened hangar, moving
underneath the hull of one of the cargo planes. We try and stay as hidden as
possible for as long as possible.

We crouch down behind the rear wheels of
the cargo plane.

We watch the door.

There is no movement. No shadows.

There are no sounds. No weird grunting or
moaning noises from Ivan.

No screams of pain from Sarah.

Nothing.

And the more we stare at the room, at the
orange light, the brighter it becomes, and the darker the hangar becomes. In a
matter of seconds, my night vision is destroyed.

“What do you think?” Kim asks.

“I think we need to get closer.”

Kim agrees. So we creep forward, running
hunched over. We run towards the light. And I can’t help but think it’s amazing
how far the light spills out into the hangar.

A long line of light.

Kind of like a runway.

We are careful to stay out of the light.

A beacon.

We are careful to stick to the shadows.

We arrive at the door, at the room of
torture. Kim is on one side of the door. I’m on the other. There is a runway, a
strip of light between us. We are close now. But this means we are at our most
vulnerable. So we need to make sure we stay hidden. We need the others to pour
the fuel, enough fuel so that it creates a puddle or a trail near the opposite
doorway. And then we need to grab a candle and set this place on fire.

So many things could go wrong.

And if Ivan were to find us now, it would
be all over.

Kim slowly moves up to the doorframe. She
peers inside the room. She then motions with her head for me to have a look.

I look inside. I look at the other door directly
opposite us. It is barricaded with a work bench. A couple of shelves. Some
boxes of tools.

But under all of this is a trail.

A tiny, slithering trail of gasoline.

I take a deep breath.

Now or never.

I give Kim a thumb’s up because I don’t
know what else to do. We didn’t have time to discuss hand signals. But I
figured a thumbs up is a pretty universal symbol for ‘let’s do this’.

I make the first move. I stand up and say a
quick prayer to anyone who’s listening. I move inside the room, moving quickly,
quietly. Moving with purpose and precision.

I make my way to the nearest work bench, to
the nearest candle.

In the corner of my eye, I see Sarah.

I see Billy.

They are both lying down. Sarah on her
back. Billy on his stomach. They are both unconscious. They do not react to my
presence.

The nearest candle is a fat cylindrical
candle. The flame is long and still. And when I move towards it, the flame
moves, flickering, wavering. I pick it up, focusing on the flame. Nothing else.

I’m about to throw it into the trail of
fuel, the puddle. I’m about to burn this place down. But something is wrong.

Because in the corner of my eye, in my
peripheral vision… I see Sarah.

I see Billy.

But no one else.

I stop.

I stand completely still

Where the hell is Ivan?

Kim is crouched in the doorway. “What are
you doing? Throw it! Let’s go.”

Ivan is nowhere to be seen. Billy is lying
there, unconscious.

Sarah is there.

“Where the hell is Ivan?” I ask Kim,
myself.

And as soon as I say it, I see Ivan
standing in the doorway, standing behind Kim. Standing over her.

He has the sledgehammer in his hand.

He has it raised.

“Kim! Look out!”

Ivan brings the sledgehammer down. And I
probably should’ve told Kim to move, that Ivan was behind her. But I didn’t
have time.

The sledgehammer comes down.

Kim reacts, moving faster than I thought
possible.

She rolls forward, into the room. She moves
out of the way just in time.

The hammer comes down, shattering the
concrete floor, leaving an impact crater.

Ivan screams. He steps into the room and we
are now cornered. He raises the hammer again and brings it down on the concrete
floor. He does this to scare us. Or maybe he does it because he is angry.

He keeps screaming.

“Throw the candle!” Kim shouts.

Ivan takes a step towards Kim. And we
should run. We should retreat. This is the smart thing to do. The sane thing.
But instead of running away, I move forward. I hold the candle out in front of
me.

I hold it out like a shield.

And Ivan stops. He stops immediately.

The flame works its magic. It’s almost like
an invisible force has grabbed Ivan by the neck and pulled him back.

He begins to retreat. He keeps his
distance.

But it is not enough. He is still blocking
the door, blocking our one and only escape route.

“Get Sarah,” I say to Kim.

Kim moves over and picks up Sarah. She puts
Sarah on her shoulders like a fireman would. And this is pretty fitting.
Because I’m about to burn this place down.

“I’ve got her,” Kim says. “Now what?”

“I don’t know.”

Ivan is keeping his distance, screaming and
moaning and grunting. He knows he is supposed to protect the food. He knows he
shouldn’t let us go.

He knows Marko will be upset with him.

“Throw the candle,” Kim says.

I think about throwing the candle, but I
don’t. I don’t want to risk the flame going out. So instead, I kneel over the
trail of gasoline. I place the flame directly over it. The flame doesn’t even
touch the gasoline before it ignites.

The fire races along the trail, engulfing
the box of tools, the shelves, the work bench, the entire barricade. In a
matter of seconds the door and the door frame is on fire. In a matter of
seconds the room is full of smoke and the heat is unbearable.

And Ivan is gone.

He screams and disappears into the hangar.

“It worked,” Kim says. “I can’t believe it
worked!”

“Let’s go.”

We make our way into the darkened hangar.
We leave Billy behind, we leave him to die, to burn.

And this makes me happy.

I try and follow Kim, but I can hardly see
where I’m going. After being so close to the fire, my night vision is gone. And
the hangar is massive, completely dark.

“Come on!” Kim says.

I follow the sound of her voice. We move
past the two giant airplanes, past the trucks and Humvees. I look over my
shoulder. The fire in the room of torture intensifies.

There is no sign of Ivan.

He could be hiding anywhere.

I hear the sound of an engine.

Is Marko back already?

Are we too late? Were we too slow?

We make it outside. Still no sign of Ivan.

And no sign of Marko.

The others are already in the Landcruiser.
Headlights on. Engine on. Maria is in the driver’s seat. Jack is riding
shotgun. Kenji has the back door open, waving us forward.

We pile in, practically falling on top of
one another.

“Go!” I yell. “Go!”

Maria has turned around in her seat,
looking over her shoulder at us. “Is Sarah all right?”

“I don’t know.” I look at her severed arm.
The butcher’s paper is covered and soaked in blood. But I think the bleeding
has stopped.

“Look out!” Kim shouts. She is pointing
ahead, out the front windshield.

Standing in front of us, lit up in the
headlights of the Landcruiser, is Ivan. He once again has the sledgehammer
raised. He brings it down hard and heavy, and with incredible force.

The hammer smashes into the hood of the
truck, leaving a massive dent, another crater. The noise is absolutely
deafening. If he does that again, he might very well destroy the engine.

Maria puts the car into reverse and floors
the accelerator. We drive backwards, fast and blind. We smash into one of the
other work trucks. The force of the crash knocks us around. My head snaps back
and forth violently.

Maria hits her head on the steering wheel.
Her nose is bleeding. She wipes away the blood, looking at her hands.

Ivan is coming.

Hammer raised.

“Go!” Jack says.

Maria puts the Landcruiser into gear and we
take off. For a second it looks like we are going to run over Ivan, but Maria
swerves at the last possible moment. Ivan swings his hammer. It smashes into
the driver’s side door, the window cracks and shatters.

We pick up speed, leaving Ivan in our dust.

Maria changes gear. “I’m not really sure
which way to go.”

“Straight ahead,” I say. “Stay on this
path. It will lead to the exit.”

“Is he gone,” she asks. “Where is he?”

I look out the back windshield. There is no
sign of Ivan. “I can’t see him. I think he’s gone.”

The airplane hangar continues to burn, the
flames rising high into the night.

And Sarah’s eyes flicker and open.
“Kingswood,” She whispers. “The name of the town is Kingswood.”

Her eyes close. I hold her one good hand.

“Find my sister,” she says. “Look after
her.”

“It’s going to be all right,” I say. “We’re
out. You’re going to make it.”

Maria pushes the Landcruiser to the limit.
We smash through the gates of the Boneyard.

We make our escape back into the desert.

The sign reads, ‘Welcome to Kingswood’.

But underneath this welcome is a warning.

The warning is written in black paint.

It says…

Turn
back.

All
are dead beyond the black walls.

And the fuel gauge reads empty. We have
been driving for… I’m not sure how long.

Eight hours. Maybe nine.

Sarah says, “We’re here.”

I look ahead, and it’s just as Sarah had
described it to us. There are giant black walls, towering over the small desert
town.

We pass another sign that reads, ‘Kingswood
is a tidy town. Please keep it that way. Kingswood is famous for its gold and
opals and other precious jewels’…

But a large black X had crossed all this
out.

And the sign now says…

There
is no King in Kingswood.

Because
a King’s crown is hollow.

“That doesn’t sound too good,” Jack says.
“All dead?”

“Yeah,” Maria says, reading the sign.
“There is no King in Kingswood? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Sarah’s eyes are barely open. Her face is
pale. Her forehead is covered in sweat. “It’s… it’s just to deter people. To
scare them away.”

“Smart,” Kenji says. “Overpopulation of a
place like this…”

He trails off. But I think he was going to
say something like, overpopulation will lead to starvation.

Cannibalism

Death.

We cross a small bridge over a narrow
section of a river, or maybe it was just a creek. Hard to tell. There’s not
much water in it. A few puddles here and there.

We enter the town, driving down the main
road. The town appears to be abandoned. No living. No dead. No infected.

There’s a black wall, straight ahead, about
a mile away.

And closer, directly in front of us, is a
makeshift barricade. It is set up in the middle of the road. It is a wall made
up of tires and cars and trucks. Sandbags. A shipping container.

And painted on the barricade in large black
letters was another message. Another warning.

Turn
back now.

All
dead.

Not safe.

Underneath this warning was more random
nonsense…

Who
is the Desert King?

Who
will wear the hollow crown?

“Looks like they tried to reclaim the
town,” I say. “You were right, Sarah.”

“Don’t think it worked,” Maria says,
pointing at a part of the barricade that had been destroyed.

This is the work of the infected. It has to
be.

Maria is about to drive through the
destroyed section of the barricade, through the makeshift wall. But the
Landcruiser stalls, lurching forward.

It rolls to a stop.

We have run out of fuel.

Sarah slowly sits up straight. She looks
ahead, looks left and right. “We need to go. Quickly.”

“Infected?” I ask.

She nods, wiping sweat off her face.

“Let’s go,” Kenji says. “We move quietly.
If we see any infected people, we hide. We head for a building.”

Jack turns to Sarah. “Any good hiding
spots?”

Before she can answer, we hear a loud
metallic ping. And then suddenly the rear windshield shatters and explodes, showering
the backseat, showering me and Kim and Sarah in glass

We all duck instinctively.

And for a second, for a few seconds, we are
all in shock. No one has any idea what the hell just happened.

Glass breaking. Shattering.

So much for being quiet.

“What the hell happened?” I ask. “What was
that?”

I peer out the back of the truck, where the
rear windshield used to be. The green tarp covering the cage on the work tray
has a small hole in it. Sunlight pokes through this hole. It takes me way too
long to realize that this hole was caused by a bullet.

Someone is shooting at us.

I open the door and I recklessly stick my
head out. I know this is dangerous and careless, but I need to see. Back down
the road, parked on the other side of the bridge, is a truck. It is similar to
this Landcruiser. The driver’s door is open. And painted on the driver’s door
is the Australian Air Force logo.

This work truck is from the Boneyard.

And standing behind the driver’s side door,
with a rifle raised to his shoulder, looking down the scope, is Marko the
Maniac.

I hear a crack. A shot.

The window of the door instantly explodes
behind my head. I am again showered with broken glass. I dive back in the car.
“Marko is here. He found us. He… he followed us.”

Another gunshot. This time the bullet slams
into the back of the work tray, causing another loud metallic ping, causing the
violent sound of metal smashing into metal.

Again, we all duck our heads.

“We need to go,” Kenji says. “We need to
get behind that barricade. Use it as cover. And then we need to get behind the
walls.”

Marko fires another shot. The bullet again
smashes into the back of the Landcruiser. I get the feeling Marko is shooting
at us just to scare us.

“You ready?” I ask Sarah.

Her eyes are barely open. She is holding
her severed arm. “I’m ready.”

“Stay close to the car,” Kenji says. “Put
it between you and the shooter. Run as fast as you can.”

Kenji opens his door. The window shatters
immediately.

And this does not seem like a good idea. We
are pinned down. We are taking fire, from an expert marksmen. A dead eye.

But we have no choice. We need to make a
move.

“Now!” Kenji says.

We all pile out of the car with Kenji
leading the way. He runs quickly, staying low, using the Landcruiser as cover.
We all follow him, following the line he runs. We make it to the barricade,
slipping through the large section that had been destroyed by the infected.
Pools of blood stained the ground, the road, the gutters,
the
sidewalk.

More gun shots pepper the Landcruiser.
Marko is definitely toying with us, scaring us.

“Is everyone OK?” Kenji asks.

No. We are not OK. But no one was shot. So
that’s something.

We crouch behind the barricade, scanning
the street in front of us.

The gunshots have stopped.

This can only mean one thing. Marko is
coming.

“Let’s move,” Kenji says. “Jack, I know
your leg is…”

Jack cuts him off. “I’m fine. Don’t worry
about me. Don’t wait for me.”

We begin moving towards the black walls,
when suddenly, we hear a screaming howl. This is followed by another, and another.

There is a horde of infected lurking
somewhere in this town. The gunshots have alerted them to our presence. And now
they are coming for us.

Kenji pushes us forward. “Run!”

We run as fast as we can towards the walls.
Towards safety. We cross an intersection, and to our right… I see them.

The infected.

The sight of them gives us a burst of
energy. We keep moving towards the black walls. We run for another couple of
blocks before we eventually arrive at the base of the walls.

But there is no discernible way inside.
There is no gate. No doorway. No entrance.

Even more troubling, directly in front of
us is a long row of metal spikes. These spikes have been stuck into the ground…
into the road. These metal spikes have been used to display severed heads.

“Please tell me these were bad people,”
Maria says.

“I don’t know,” Sarah answers. “I don’t
recognize anyone. This wasn’t here before…”

I’m hoping this is another deterrent. I’m
hoping these people deserved this fate.

“How the hell do we get inside?” I ask.

Written on the black wall, directly in
front of us, painted in large white letters is another strange message.

The
Desert King wears a hollow crown…

I’m starting to get the feeling that
something is not right. My instincts are shouting at me. I have a cold feeling
in my gut.

Suddenly a lone figure appears at the top
of the wall.

He looks down at us.

Sarah recognizes him immediately. “David!”

It takes him a few seconds, but eventually
he says, “Sarah?”

“David, you have to let us in. We don’t
have much time.”

“I thought you were dead. We all thought
you were dead.”

“Please. There’s infected people coming.
And…”

“You should never have left.”

“Please,” Sarah says.

“What happened to your arm? And who are
these people?”

“These people saved my life. I owe them…”

He looks at Sarah’s arm. He then looks out
over the town. He can hear the infected. He can probably see them.

I look over my shoulder. I can’t see them
yet, they haven’t rounded the corner. But they are coming.

David shakes his head. “I’m sorry. You
cannot enter. No one enters. You know the rules. We can’t risk it.”

And before Sarah can plead her case, our
case. Before we can beg. He disappears.

He disappears behind the black walls and
all hope disappears with him.

“David!” Sarah screams. “I need to see my
sister! Where is my sister!?”

But David is gone and we are alone. We are
stranded at the gates, stranded on the wrong side of the wall.

The infected pour into the street, like a
flood, like ants swarming.

I feel someone grab my arm, my wrist, I’m
not sure who. They pull me along. But I’m still looking at the infected. There
must be hundreds of them.

Thousands.

And behind them, beyond them, standing on
top of the failed barricade, is Marko.

He is standing there alone. He has a rifle
in his hands. I imagine him to be smiling. Laughing.

He is not done with us yet. And I’m not
sure what made us believe we could escape so easily from his clutches.

And I feel like giving up.

But Kenji pulls me along.

He won’t let me give up.

My friends, my family won’t let me give up.

Kim and Maria are helping Jack run. Jack
told us not to worry about him, not to wait for him. But there’s no way we’re
leaving him behind. Sarah has a look of anger and rage and determination on her
face. Her eyes are wide open. She is furious that she was denied entry. Furious
that she is being kept from her sister, that she has been betrayed. She’s not
even holding her severed arm anymore.

So we continue running.

And I won’t stop. I won’t quit. Not as long
as there is air in my lungs. And even though we are surrounded by things that
want to kill us, even though we are exposed, even though we have no shelter, no
food, no water, we will fight.

We will not give up.

We will find a home.

We will build a future.

We will do this, or we will die trying.