I choked up as I remembered the soldiers that were left behind in the temporary immigration center. They were sacrificed and used as a distraction. "Those men," I continued. "They"re keeping the infected occupied while the rest of the military make their escape. While this is happening we need to make our escape as well. Or at least find a suitable hiding spot. The only problem is if they decide to send in another airstrike. If those jets come back. They could level this city. And no matter where we hide we won"t survive."

I thought hearing this piece of news would upset her even further. But it didn"t. She actually stopped crying.

She lowered her head. "You"re right. I"m sorry," she said, wiping the tears away from her face. "We need to stick together. We can do this."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Outside more explosions rocked the city. We could feel the force from the blast waves. More smoke billowed up into the sky, high above the buildings.

Maria looked out the window. "Well not if they nuke the joint," she added. "But we can"t control that. What we can control is finding a hiding spot. Getting to high ground, fortifying our position."

I was speechless for a few seconds. "Wow. You sound like a real soldier, a master strategist."

"Hey, I"m a fast learner."

"I"m impressed," I said, smiling. "And you"re absolutely right. But the timing is crucial. We should wait it out. At least until the bombing dies down. At least until those jets bug out. There"s no point in finding a good spot to hide if all they"re going to do is blow it up."

I just hope they don"t destroy this city, I thought to myself. If that happened it was game over for everyone.

Timing is everything Two of the longest hours of my life pa.s.sed.

The gunfire and the bombing had been steady during the whole time. And the worst part? We were now seeing more and more infected on the other side of the harbor, back towards the casino which was now leaning at even more of an angle.

Our time was up. We had to make a move.

"Do you think the military; those men in black will come back through here?" Maria asked.

"I"m not sure. Not for a while at least. I mean, ideally it would be great if they could get you out of here. But I don"t know."

"I don"t want to go with them," she said quietly. "I know I probably should. But I don"t."

"Maria. You"re different. You"re special. You heard what Doctor West said. No one is immune. Everyone dies. Everyone turns. You need to get out of here alive."

"Yeah I heard him. Doesn"t change the way I feel though."

I eventually convinced Maria that she needed to be rescued. And the only way that was going to happen was if the military came back for her. Ideally it would be great if we could contact the military and then dictate terms to them.

Organize a pick up point.

Organize a time.

I figured that would be the safer option. Beat the h.e.l.l out of walking up to them blindly on the streets. Who knows how they would react? They would probably enforce the containment protocol. Shoot first, ask questions later. We could not take that risk.

"In the meantime," I said. "We need to get off the streets. We need to get to a building. Get to the high ground."

"All right then," Maria said. "Let"s go."

We climbed down the narrow stairwell of the harbor cruise boat and stepped out on to the jetty. We were about to make our move when we heard something coming from the other end of the marina.

Running footsteps.

"Who is it?" Maria whispered.

I moved to the edge of the boat and what I saw took my breath away. For a second I felt disorientated and confused. Like, I was dreaming, like everything that had happened that afternoon didn"t really happen at all.

Why? Because the person running towards us as fast as they possibly could, like they were being chased...

It was Jack.

Maria had moved up next to me. We looked at each other just to make sure we had both seen him and that we weren"t crazy.

"Is that Jack?" I asked in a state of complete denial.

Maria couldn"t contain the smile on her face. She was about to jump off the jetty and run up to him but I held her back.

"No. Wait. It"s not safe."

Jack was sprinting at full speed. He kept looking over his shoulder like he was being chased.

Was he being chased?

I"ll admit it was good to see him. But on the other hand I couldn"t fight the cold; sinking feeling I had in my gut.

Something had gone wrong.

Horribly wrong.

What happened to their boat?

Images flashed through my head. Nasty G.o.d awful images.

Did they crash?

Were they attacked?

Apaches helicopters.

F22 Raptors.

A10 bombers.

Where was Kim?

Where was Rebecca?

Where the h.e.l.l was Rebecca?

The Return of Jack Jack was close now.

"We have to get him," Maria said. "We have to tell him we"re here."

"I... I know."

I wanted to say we needed to make sure it was safe. That he was not being chased. That we were not endangering ourselves.

But I couldn"t speak. I couldn"t think.

Where was Rebecca?

Maria couldn"t wait any longer. She jumped up and ran towards Jack. I followed right behind. Gun raised and ready. If Jack was being chased we wouldn"t have long to get the h.e.l.l out of here and find another hiding spot.

Jack saw us right away. He saw me first. He saw my gun and stopped running immediately and raised his hands. But then he realized it was me and he relaxed. Then he saw Maria. And his jaw dropped.

Maria ran up to him and they hugged, wrapping their arms around each other. Holding on tight. Jack was exhausted. He had practically collapsed on top of Maria whilst hugging her. But Maria didn"t care. Jack then collapsed for real and I had to help Maria carry him back into the boat. Jack was breathing hard. He was trying to speak but he couldn"t get any words out.

His chest was heaving.

"It"s all right," I said. "Just breathe. It"s OK."

He took a few minutes to calm down and catch his breath. His legs were shaking, his hands were trembling. Adrenalin was coursing through his veins.

He was in shock.

I told him to take his time. Breathe. I told him that everything was all right. But in my head I knew everything was not all right. In my head I couldn"t stop thinking the worst.

Their boat. Sunk. Crashed. Blown up.

Rebecca. Kim. Drowned. Or shot.

Blown to bits.

Or eaten.

"Is...Um... your sister?" I asked tentatively "And Rebecca?"

"We got away," he gasped. "We were pretty far out. On the other side of the bridge. I jumped overboard. I left them. I"m sorry."

"Why? Why did you leave them?"

"I"m sorry," he repeated, struggling to speak. "I swam back to sh.o.r.e. Started running. Sprinting."

"Why did you jump?" I asked again. "Why did you come back here?"

"I couldn"t leave Maria. I just couldn"t. I know Kim is hurt, she"s bleeding. I know it"s going to be tough out there in the open waters. But I couldn"t leave here without knowing what happened to Maria."

"So the boat is OK? Is Kim, is Rebecca all right?"

"Last I saw, yeah," he answered. "The harbor was empty. The skies were empty. They had a clear run to the ocean."

A wave of relief washed over me. They were alive. At least for the moment. I knew that could change in a heartbeat.

"I can"t believe I found you guys. I can"t believe it. How?"

"Those soldiers, the men in black. They tried to get me out in a helicopter," Maria said. "We took off. For a second there I thought we were going to make it. But one of the soldiers was infected. He must"ve been bitten while they were breaking into the casino, or while we were getting out. There was a lot of infected chasing after us. He went crazy. And the scariest part was he was sitting right across from me. I mean, if he had decided to lunge for me, bite me, attack me. I"d be dead right now."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Anyway, just after we took off, he attacked the pilot from behind. Bit his neck, almost ripped his head clean off. After that it was complete chaos. We started going down. We were spinning out of control. I was pushed back in my seat. I couldn"t move. Next thing I knew we were in the water."

Jack couldn"t believe it. He hugged Maria again. He kept saying sorry. I don"t know why he was saying sorry. Maybe he was sorry for leaving her. I don"t know.

A couple of hours later, Maria fell asleep. She was exhausted.

Jack was still wired with adrenalin.

"You shouldn"t have come back," I said to him. "What about Rebecca? What about Kim? You should"ve stayed with them."

"The harbor was empty," he answered. "They were safe."

"You don"t know that!"

"It was clear as far as the eye could see. Trust me. I wouldn"t have left them if I thought they were in any danger."

I stared at him. "There"s no way you could"ve known if it was safe."

"I had to know that Maria was all right," he continued. "Maybe I wasn"t thinking straight. But I couldn"t help it. I couldn"t stand by and do nothing."

I shook my head. I think I understood his reasons. "They almost had her out," I said. "They were so close. But the chopper, the pilot lost control. It"s a miracle she"s alive. If the military come back, we have to hand her over. Do you understand?

"What? No way! They tried to kill us. They"re destroying the city. They"re killing innocent people. That"s why you left right? You didn"t want to be a part of it?"

"I... I left because..."

"Yeah. And now you want to hand Maria over to the military? Are you crazy?"

"Maria is too important. She"s too valuable. The military, the soldiers, the men in black, they are enforcing the containment protocol because that"s their orders. That"s the only way to stop the spread of infection."

"There"s gotta be a better way."

"There is," I answered. "Maria. That"s why we hand her over to the military when and if they come back. With Maria, they can manufacture an anti-virus. They can put a stop to all of this."

"What if they don"t come back?"

"Then we have to contact the military. We have to let them know that Maria is still alive."

"You do realize that if they come back for Maria then they"ll probably just kill us."

I nodded. "Yeah. I do."

Jack didn"t like the idea at all. He didn"t trust the military one bit. And I can"t blame him. Not after the ma.s.sacre at the bridge and everything else that had happened. But he reluctantly agreed. He knew Maria was important. He knew she should"ve died when she was bitten.