The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) by James Harden Read Free Book Online

our way into the center of the city. Storm
clouds gathered in the west, slowly making their way towards us. A cold wind
blew in from the south, dropping the temperature by quite a few degrees in a
very short amount of time. The wind was funneled through the buildings, blowing
dust and paper through the streets.
    The paper.
    I’ve never
seen so much paper blowing in the wind before. It seemed to be raining down on
us.
    When we left
the relative safety of our boat, we couldn’t hear any gunfire at all, certainly
no explosions. So we figured it was as safe as it was going to get. But as soon
as we left Darling Harbor, we could hear sporadic burst of gunfire start up
again. Fortunately for us the gunfire seemed to coming from a fair distance
away. Further east, towards the coast. And towards the south. Jack said that’s
where Sydney Airport was located. The military had probably set up a forward
operating base there, I thought.
    We made our
way slowly through the city streets. And I couldn’t help but feel I was leading
Jack and Maria into an ambush. The sky scrapers of the inner city towered over
us. Imposing. Casting shadows. There were literally a million places for an
enemy, infected or otherwise to be hiding.
    Buildings
were pockmarked with gunfire, shelling, and the blackened scorch marks of
explosives. The streets were completely torn up with huge bomb craters. Cars
were everywhere. They had been left behind by their owners in the middle of the
street and the middle of the intersections, even on the sidewalks. There were
all kinds of cars.
    Family
sedans.
    SUV’s.
    Luxury cars.
    Work trucks
and delivery vans.
    Military
vehicles.
    Humvees
covered in blood.
    Even tanks
had been Left behind. They had possibly run out of fuel. Although some of them had
become trapped in between abandoned trucks, and cars and concrete rubble.
    Blood
splattered the road and the sidewalk. We started seeing limbs. Legs, arms,
hands, fingers. No bodies though.
    It was a
scene of complete madness. Total chaos.
    Lucky for us
the city center seemed to be deserted at that point in time. And this street
was empty. But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be for long.
    "This is
awful," Maria whispered. "I’d never thought I’d see Sydney in a state like
this. I am so glad we missed whatever happened here."
    "Yeah, this
looks like a goddamn warzone," Jack said. "Where is everyone?"
    "If the
military were falling back on foot, they’d head for the coast," I answered. "To
the beaches. Or maybe towards the airport. So I’m guessing the infected are
chasing them, following them out there. But they’ll be back."
    "Who will be
back?" Maria asked.
    "The
infected."
    "How do you
know that?"
    "Remember
what Doctor West said. The Oz virus is designed to find life. They’ll be back,
and they’ll be looking for us."
    Maria seemed
to tense up when I mentioned Doctor West. "Guys," she said. "It’s getting late.
We need to get off the streets before dark."
    Storm clouds
continued to build and move over the city. Jack told me this was a typical
Australian summer storm. The storm would usually build up during the hot and
humid day. And then by late afternoon you’d have a violent lighting storm. Strong
winds. Even hail. But it would be over pretty quickly.
    Lightning
cracked overhead. Thunder echoed throughout the dead city.
    "Where
should we go?" Jack asked.
    "Preferably
a taller building," I said. "We want to be high of the ground floor. High above
the streets."
    "Down
there," Jack pointed. "The Center Point shopping complex. There’s about four
buildings connected. If we can get to them and get inside, we’d be off the ground.
And we would have options, we could move around. Get away if we needed to."
    I nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
    "We better
hurry," Maria said. "It’s going to start pouring down any minute now."
    "All right.
Let’s go."
    We were
about to make a move. We actually took a few running steps. I was looking
forward to getting