The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) Read Online Free

of this country. She is special. Immune.
Resistant. She was bitten but she didn’t die."
    My head was
a mess. Fear and self-doubt and panic on the verge of crippling me.
    I was
finding it hard to breathe.
    But I kept
running.
    The chopper
had crashed right next to the footbridge that cut across this end of the
harbor.
    If I could
make it over there I’d have a much better chance of helping any survivors.
Finding Maria. There had to be survivors, I thought. The chopper wasn’t that
high up when the pilot lost control.
    Up near the
casino, I saw a man on fire, stumbling towards the harbor and the wreckage of
the chopper.
    I raised my
rifle, took careful aim.
    Squeezed the
trigger.
    I nailed him
in the chest, knocked him off his feet.
    But he got
back up and started running towards me.
    I dropped to
one knee. Took aim.
    I waited.
    And waited.
    Focused on
my breathing.
    In and out.
    I waited for
the man on fire to get closer.
    I drowned
out the voice in my head.
    Fear.
    Self-doubt.
    "If you miss
now, he will run you down. Tackle you. Burn you. He will bite you. Infect you."
    "Do not
miss."
    I lowered my
aim at the last second and took out his legs. He fell to the ground and skidded
to my feet. One more shot to the head finished him off. I was about to stand up
and make my way to the chopper. But then I saw someone climb on to the jetty on
the opposite side of the harbor.
    They climbed
up, took a few steps and then collapsed.
    I looked
through my scope.
    It was a
girl.
    Not a
soldier.
    It was
Maria.
    Hope

    I couldn’t believe it.
    She was
alive.
    She was the
only one. None of the soldiers had made it.
    I shook my
head. I could not believe it. I looked through my scope just to make sure she
was all right. She had pulled herself up and out of the water, on to the jetty. She
was drenched. She brushed her blonde hair out of her face, wiped the water out
of her eyes.
    How she
avoided all those floating bodies, I’ll never know. She must’ve dived for the
bottom of the harbor, picked out clear spot, swum up to the surface. I was
still in denial. Maybe I had already convinced myself she was dead.
    More
infected piled out from the casino. Some of them were on fire. Some of them
were missing limbs. Regardless of their injuries and disfigurements, they were
all running faster than humanly possible.
    Maria saw
them and started backing away. A split second later she started running.
Luckily she ran in my direction.
    I took aim
at the infected. I unloaded the rest of the magazine. Full automatic.
    I reloaded.
Kept firing.
    Maria looked
up and saw me. She ran over.
    She made it
over to me in world record time.
    She doubled
over, breathing hard. "Kenij! I can’t… I can’t believe it."
    "It’s OK.
Just breathe."
    "Where did
you guys go? What happened?"
    "They got
out," I answered. "I had to stay behind. I had to cover their escape."
    "What? What
happened back in the casino?"
    I fired off
a few more rounds, making sure they were head shots, making sure they counted.
    "We had to
leave you," I said.
    And as I
said it, Maria looked like someone had sucker punched her. "What?" she
repeated.
    "I’m sorry,"
I said. "We had to leave. I made the call."
    Her face
went pale. Her knees were starting to buckle. It was then I remembered she was
probably still very weak from being bitten.
    "Where is
Jack?" she asked.
    "Look, we
have to hide. I’ll explain everything but right now we need to get out of the
open. We’re not safe here."
    She shook
her head. "No. Where is Jack!?" she asked again, ignoring everything that was
happening around us.
    "He’s safe.
They’re all safe. We gotta go."
    I scanned
our immediate area. We did not have long.
    Maria’s
knees continued to buckle. It was taking her considerable effort to stand. I
went to put my arm around her, to support her but she pushed me away.
    "Please,
just tell me! Where is Jack?"
    She began to
collapse. I caught her and picked her up.
    "I’ll
explain everything," I whispered. "But we need