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

fronts."
    "Not you."
    "Not with
one rifle."
    "Two
magazines."
    "Sixty
bullets."
    "You’re a
dead man."
    I shook my
head. Slapped my face.
    It was time
to focus on staying alive.
    The men in
black were closing in on both sides. Squeezing me in. These guys were good.
Methodical. They were closing in fast. I was running out of options and out of
time. I had two points of cover within crawling distance of each other. From
these two positions I could cover the soldiers making their way across the
Darling Harbor footbridge and the two soldiers who had made it across the
bridge. They were to the right of my position. Getting closer. They were my
priority. I had to take them out before it was too late. If they got the jump
on me, it really would be all over. And if these guys were indeed Special
Forces soldiers (which I’m pretty sure they were) it wouldn’t take them long to
make their move.
    "They train
for this type of thing every single day. Over and over. It’s a reflex for these
guys. An automatic response. A skill set they’ve developed through countless
hours of brutal training exercises."
    "Shut up," I
told the voice in my head. "Focus."
    I had to
stop building these guys up in my head. They were only human.
    Out of
nowhere I remembered a quote from the movie ‘Predator’. "If it bleeds we can
kill it."
    So yeah,
there were two guys to the right of my position and a whole squad, maybe more
to my left, coming over the bridge.
    Mission impossible
right?
    The crazy
thing was these guys were probably American. Maybe Australian or British.
    Last week we
were fighting and serving together. And Now? Now everything was messed up
beyond comprehension.
    They were
following orders and their orders were to enforce the ‘containment protocol’.
    Shoot to
kill.
    I know this
because they used to be my orders.
    What a
difference a week can make.
    Another
volley of bullets smashed into the jetty. I ducked my head and prepared to
return fire. The soldiers on the footbridge were well concealed. The bridge
provided excellent cover. It was about as wide as a main road. And it was at
least twenty feet above the water. If they made it over to my side, they would
eventually overrun my position.
    But first
things first. I needed to deal with the two soldiers who had made it across the
bridge.
    I got to my
knees, aimed my rifle. I looked for them but I couldn’t see them. They had
taken cover. They were hidden. Invisible. They were ghosts. And then from
behind a giant slab of concrete that used to be part of a building, something
was lobbed in a high, looping arc. Something small and black.
    A grenade.
    It flew
through the air in slow motion.
    The word
‘grenade’ was shouted over and over, loud and clear inside my own head. I watched
it fly through the air and I knew at once this was no stun grenade. It was a
frag grenade. It was designed to inflict bodily damage, serious injury. Death.
    The men in
black knew I was dug in and they knew I had the ability to shoot. They weren’t
messing around any longer. They had taken the initiative. I guess I should’ve
expected that.
    Meanwhile,
everything was still happening in slow motion.
    As the
grenade hit the peak of its arc, the handle sprang off, spiraling slowly to the
ground. At this point I knew the fuse had been ignited. I had a few seconds;
maybe less before the damn thing blew up, fragmenting bits of red hot shrapnel
in all directions.
    The grenade
began falling back to earth.
    Coming
closer.
    It landed on
the jetty right next to me, bouncing to my feet, rolling around in a small
semi-circle before coming to a stop right against my boot.
    I was frozen
to the spot for second.
    One second.
    It felt like
an eternity.
    Everything
was still happening in slow motion.
    I dived into
the nearest boat wreckage. I curled into a ball, and covered my face. Another
second passed.
    Another
lifetime.
    And then it
erupted.
    There was a
blinding flash of light. The shockwave pressed into me. The noise