Free The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) by James Harden Page A

not just any car. It was a
bright pink Rolls Royce. It was severely damaged. The chassis was dented and
scratched. Some of the windows were shattered. The headlights were smashed in.
The famous Rolls Royce grill had been completely destroyed. The luxury car came
to an abrupt stop, almost directly below us. Both rear doors opened at the same
time and two soldiers exited the car. They were both heavily armed. Each
soldier had at least four rifles slung over his back.
    Sniper
rifles.
    And automatic
weapons.
    One of the
soldiers opened the trunk. The other stood guard, watching the street in the
direction they had just come from. He had one of his sniper rifles at the
ready.
    Another
soldier appeared from the driver’s side door. "Hold them here for as long as
you can," he said. "Blackhawk is inbound for extraction. You’ve got ten
minutes."
    The two
other soldiers nodded. No questions asked.
    The soldier
from the driver’s seat then held his index finger up to his ear. "Say again?"
    The two
heavily armed soldiers kept unloading equipment from the trunk. They appeared
to be large suitcases.
    The soldier
up front said, "Ah guys, they said this area is too hot for a pick up. They
can’t guarantee an extraction. They can’t give you an ETA. They want you to
acknowledge this."
    The two
heavily armed soldiers both nodded again.
    One of them
said. "Just get him the hell out of here. He’s too valuable. He is all that
matters. We’ll be fine."
    The driver
jumped back in the car and slammed the door shut. The engine revved loudly and
the Rolls Royce sped off. The back end of the huge luxury car slid out as it
maneuvered around a pile of debris. The driver finally got the car back under
control as it fish-tailed back and forth. The car straightened and took off at
a hundred miles an hour. The driver kept his foot to the floor, driving straight
for another block; before he realized the street was cut off up ahead. He then
turned sharply down another side street and the noise faded away.
    "Was that
the car we saw at the casino?" Maria whispered.
    "I don’t
know," Jack answered. "But how many other bright pink Rolls Royce’s would there
be in the city?"

I told them
both to be quiet. I had no idea what these two soldiers were up to but I didn’t
want to draw their attention. Not while they were packing enough heat to equip
a small army.
    It was
getting dark. More storm clouds.
    The soldiers
were both wearing black. They both put on gas masks. And night vision goggles.
Why gas masks? I don’t know. Maybe they figured the virus was airborne or
something. I really hoped that wasn’t the case. If it was, we were all screwed.
    They smashed
open the windows of a couple of cars parked on the side of the street. They
reached in and released the handbrake. They then pushed these cars together,
making a barricade across the street.
    They opened
the large suitcases that they had removed from the trunk of the Rolls Royce.
The suitcases contained sentry guns. M134 sentinels. Extremely heavy duty. They
were automatic machine guns that fired autonomously at moving targets.
    They set
these up further down the road.
    The soldiers
then took up firing positions behind their barricade of cars. They loaded up
all their rifles, placing each so they could get to them easily. There would be
no time to reload.
    One of them
checked their watch. Held his finger up to his ear. "Copy that. ETA five
minutes. Green smoke indicates our location."
    Off in the
distance we could hear the howling, screaming moan of the infected.
    One of the
soldiers lit a flare and green smoke billowed up into the sky between the
buildings.
    "What do we
do?" Jack whispered.
    "We wait," I
said. "If they get in deep, I’ll provide covering fire."
    "Shouldn’t
we tell them to get up here?" Maria asked.
    "No," Jack
whispered. "Do not call out to them. They’ll kill us."
    "I… I don’t
know," I said. "It’s too risky."
    I genuinely
did not know what to do at that point. If we