The Lost Journal Part 20

"Perfect. Let's go. We don't have much time."

We stayed low to the ground, sneaking between the abandoned cars as we made our way to the Town Hall.

"It should be another block or so," Jack said.

We had come to another main intersection. But then Jack stopped. He looked left. Then he looked right.

"What are you doing?" Maria asked. "It's straight ahead."

But Jack didn't answer. He was staring at something.

I followed his gaze.

There was a group of about fifty people. They were definitely infected. They were feeding on a horse.

Multiple horses.

At first I thought I was seeing things. Why would there be horses in the middle of the city? But then I saw a whole squad of police officers. They were dressed in riot gear. They were wearing big bullet proof vests. Helmets. Face masks. Even with all of that protective gear they had still been overwhelmed. Bitten. Infected.

And now, they were eating, feeding on their own horses.

They were all kneeling down, hunched and huddled together over the huge animals.

Blood and guts sprawled out all over the road.

They reminded me of a bunch of hyenas feeding on a carca.s.s.

I pushed Jack, urging him forward. The group of infected hadn't seen us yet. If we could cross the intersection as quickly and as quietly as possible we might just make it.

Unfortunately we weren't fast enough.

We were about half way across the intersection when they saw us.

It's not safe on the streets.

We were way out in the open of the intersection. No cover. Nothing to hide behind. Not even any abandoned cars.

No man's land.

One of them turned towards us.

It was a police officer in full riot gear. His face was hidden behind a helmet and protective mask.

More of them turned towards us.

Our only option was to run.

Run as fast as we could.

"Go," I whispered. "Go!"

Jack was out in front. I was hoping he knew the way. Maria was right behind Jack. She snuck a glance over her shoulder. I told her not to look. I told her to keep running.

We were coming up to another intersection. "Hold it!" I said. "Move against the wall."

Jack skidded to a stop.

"We can't just go running out into the open," I said.

He nodded as he looked back down the road. The fear of being chased was clouding our judgment, making us do stupid things.

I peeked around the corner of the intersection. Looking left and then right. The street was deserted. "OK, it's clear. Let's go."

We started off at a sprint once more. Maria was lagging behind.

"Come on, Maria," I said. "We're nearly there. We can rest when we get inside."

She leant forward, forcing her legs to go faster. Digging deep. Calling on every last reserve of energy. We picked up the pace, trying desperately to get away from the chasing infected. We needed to be as far out in front as possible when we got to the Town Hall. If they knew where we were hiding, they would follow us. They would not stop.

Unfortunately, as we ran deeper into the city, the streets became more and more congested with rubble and cars. All of the cars had been abandoned. Some had their doors left open. Some of them had been crushed. Some of them had their windows blown out and some were peppered with bullet holes.

There was no time to stop and check if there was anything hiding in or behind them, or under them.

We just had to push through.

Eventually though, the street became too congested.

There were too many cars. Too much rubble and debris.

There was half a building lying across the road. It had collapsed and crumbled across street, blocking both lanes, like a giant had taken a sledge hammer to it. It was like we could see the skeleton of the building, its spine exposed. More paper drifted down on us.

It must've taken fire from an Apache, I thought. Or maybe some F22's or an A10 bomber. A couple of air to surface missiles would be enough to do it. More than enough. Huge chunks of concrete covered the street. A few blocks ahead, it was completely cut off by more crumbled buildings.

This section of the city was lying in ruin. It had been utterly destroyed.

We had to take a detour.

Jack took the lead again. Maria and I followed without question. I risked a glance over my shoulder. The group of infected were still chasing. The former riot squad was out in front. We turned down another street. We seemed to be running faster. I don't know how. We were all exhausted. Maybe it was because the gaps between all the abandoned cars, and taxis, and trucks were so narrow it felt like we were running faster. I don't know.

Despite all of the obstacles, we were putting good distance between us and the chasing infected. The trade off was that we were being less and less careful. We were basically running blindly through the streets. We could've been ambushed at any turn. I think we all ignored that cold, terrifying thought. Our goal was the sanctuary of the Town Hall. Hopefully it was still standing. Hopefully it was empty.

"Not far now," Jack said to us over his shoulder.

We turned another corner and finally, the Town Hall came into view. The Town Hall was a big square building with solid stone walls and a large set of stairs leading up to the entrance.

Most importantly it was still in one piece.

We climbed the stairs at the front of the building and made it inside without incident. I slid a couple of long wooden bench seats in front of the door to barricade them.

"I think we've lost them," Jack said, doubled over, trying desperately to catch his breath.

Maria had dropped to her knees, breathing deeply in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her eyes were closed. "It's not safe on the streets. Not safe."

As we locked the huge wooden doors of the entrance and barricaded it with tables and chairs, we could still hear the constant chatter of machine guns in the distance.

Hopefully the infected would continue to pursue the remaining soldiers.

It was a gruesome thought. A selfish thought. But I couldn't help thinking it.

The Sydney Town Hall I inspected our hastily put together barricade of tables and chairs. It wasn't much but it was something.

"I can't believe it," Maria said. "I just can't believe it. The city. It's so messed up."

"Yeah, it's not good." Jack mumbled almost to himself.

We wasted no time in securing the rest of the building. We moved through the Town Hall in silence, trying to ignore the fact we were in the middle of a warzone. We checked the side entrances and emergency exits. We made sure they were all locked. I made sure we had a way out in case we needed to leave in a hurry.

We decided to rest up in the main function room. According to the sign on the huge wooden double doors, it was called the Centennial Hall.

Jack and Maria moved behind me and I pushed open the doors.

I scanned the room quickly, rifle armed and ready.

The room was deserted. It appeared to have been set up for some kind of function. It was full of round dinner tables that were all covered with white table cloths. Bottles of wine and champagne were sitting on the tables. And empty gla.s.ses.

There was a sign just inside the main door that read: North Sydney Grammar Debutante Ball.

Welcome Debutantes and partners.

"What the h.e.l.l is a debutante ball?" I asked "It's like a fancy prom or high school dance," Maria answered. "It's an old tradition. It's supposed to symbolize a young girl coming out into society or something. Personally, think it's load of c.r.a.p."

"You do not," Jack said.

"Well, maybe not all of it," Maria replied. "OK, sure, it would be fun to dress up and dance and all that stuff. But the whole thing, the whole tradition. It's s.e.xist or something. I don't know."

Jack shook his head. "It's not s.e.xist. It's just an excuse to party."

I moved over to the nearest table and picked up a menu. Dinner was to be a three course meal.

King Prawns and Seared Scallops for the entree.

Wagyu beef and Atlantic salmon for the main course.

Creme brulee and chocolate lava cake for dessert.

Underneath the menu was the wine list and a warning that alcohol was not available for debutantes or partners who were under the age of eighteen.

I doubt that would've stopped anyone.

Reading the menu had made me hungry.

Without saying a word between us we all moved over to the main bar that was located at the rear of the room. We were all hungry and thirsty. Luckily we found some bottled water. But unfortunately the only food we found were bar snacks. Salted peanuts. Potato chips.

Not good.

"There's a small supermarket across the road," Jack said. "It should have some canned food or something."

"Do you really want to go back outside?" Maria asked. "With those things? I'm more than happy with potato chips for dinner."

"We can't survive on potato chips forever," Jack answered.

"Who said anything about forever? I just think it's not worth the risk to go back outside right now."

"Yeah, Maria's right," I said. "We should wait. Make sure the infected have cleared out. Go first thing in the morning."

Jack didn't look convinced. "And what if they don't clear out?"

"Then we wait."

"For how long? Until we starve to death? News flash, we're in the middle of the city. We're completely surrounded. There are hundreds of them out there. And that number is growing by the minute."

"I understand that," I answered. "But we just ran a good couple of miles. We need to rest up first. We can go hungry for one night."

I think Jack knew we couldn't go back outside at that point. He was just voicing his fears. The biggest fear being that we were trapped in the city, that we were surrounded, that we weren't going to make it out of Sydney alive. And I have to admit, I was scared of the exact same thing. I had no idea how many people had been infected. And I had no idea how many infected people were in the middle of the city.

We were in a bad place. A very bad place. Would there ever be a safe time to make a raid on the supermarket? Or would it just be a suicide mission?

I had a feeling it would be the latter.

And I guess that's maybe the main reason I wanted to leave it for tomorrow.

I wasn't ready to risk my life again. Not yet.

Feb 9th - Grocery store raid. And more conversations with the dead.

We moved upstairs into an office of some sort and spent the night. I slept with my back against the door. At first light, we moved out to the main balcony on the second floor. It was a huge stone balcony that looked out over the city and the intersection below. Jack told me that across the road from the Town Hall was another historic building the queen Victoria building. Apparently it was heritage listed or historically important or something. Recently it had been transformed into a prestigious shopping center.

I looked through the scope on my rifle down at the Queen Victoria building. The store front windows had mostly been blown apart. Some were still intact.

The stores were mainly for designer labels.

Louis Vuitton.

Versace.

Gucci.

Five star luxury brand names smack bang in the middle of a warzone. They were covered in blood, damaged from small arms fire. Next to the Queen Victoria building was a large bronze statue, probably of Queen Victoria. She was sitting on her throne, ruler of her domain. Or at least this particular intersection.