"I think there are some supplies in groundskeeper"s shed," Maria suggested. "I think I saw some paint in there we can use."

We made our way to the supply sheds and actually found a lot of stuff we could use. There were buckets of white paint they used to paint the lines on the field. Jack informed me that this particular field was used for cricket and two or three different types of football. So they were constantly repainting the lines. We gathered up a bucket of paint each and decided to get to work on painting a sign first thing tomorrow on the field and on the roof of the stadium if we could get up there.

We settled back into the corporate box that we had taken over. Jack and Maria fell asleep in each other"s arms again as I lay awake, still thinking about what to do. Should we stay here longer? Should we make a move? What about food? We can"t survive on potato chips forever.

It must"ve been close to sunrise when I heard some distant noises coming from the inner city.

I am haunted I sat up and moved over to the windows at the rear of the corporate box. These windows looked towards the city but I couldn"t see anything. If I had to guess I"d say the noises were choppers and jet engines. The noises were very noticeable because it had been quiet for about a week now.

Jack and Maria were sleeping. They hadn"t heard anything.

I shook Jack by the leg. He didn"t move. I nudged his leg again. "Hey, Jack. I"m just going up to the roof. I just wanna check something out."

"Huh?"

"I think I just heard a chopper fly over."

He yawned. Maria was still fast asleep.

"What do you think it is?" he asked.

"Don"t know. I better go check it out. You two stay here."

"I think we should stick together."

"It"s fine. I"ll be quick. I"m just gonna have a look. I"ll be right back."

He didn"t put up much of a fight. I guess he didn"t really want to leave the safety of our room if it wasn"t necessary. And no doubt he was still exhausted from fortifying the stadium.

I found the emergency stairwell and climbed up on to the roof of the stadium. I was anxious to find out what the situation was. Maybe the military were starting to clean this place up? Maybe they were starting to reclaim the city? They could start from the coast and out behind the western suburbs. Close in from both sides. Go through suburb after suburb systematically and methodically.

That"s what I"d do.

But when I got to the roof I didn"t see anything. I don"t know what I was expecting. Maybe I expected to see choppers and jets and tanks. But the city looked quiet and lonely. It looked deserted.

Suddenly I spotted one lone jet, high above the city. I couldn"t quite make out what kind of jet. It appeared to be black. It could"ve been a B-2 stealth bomber. I guess, someone was out there. Someone was watching the city. Planning. Organizing. Hopefully they would make their move soon.

Two smaller jets flew in unison with the larger jet. The Jets banked sharply to the east. They then straightened up and gained speed. A split second later a huge boom echoed throughout the sky and the city. The two smaller jets disappeared over the horizon, heading back out to sea.

The larger black jet climbed, gaining alt.i.tude and disappeared behind some clouds.

I wondered what they were doing.

Reconnaissance maybe.

But reconnaissance for what?

All of a sudden Franco was standing next to me. He had a spotter scope up to his eye. "Yeah," he said. "Reminds me of that mission as well."

"Franco?" I whispered. "What? What mission?"

"In the Hindu Kush when the F16"s took out that hidden Al Qaeda base. Battle damage a.s.sessment. What a load of c.r.a.p. Nearly got us killed. Why did they want us up there? It wasn"t for the bombing. No way. Why were they digging those graves? Why did command ask us if any of them got back up? Sound familiar?"

"What are you saying?"

"You already know. You know d.a.m.n well what I"m saying. You"re just too scared to admit it. Afghanistan is a long way away. A world away. The Middle East. West Asia. The biggest most populated continent in the entire world."

"Franco, you don"t know."

He shook his head. "Why did we agree to that mission? Why? We were dropped miles behind enemy lines. Just the two of us. You know how dangerous that is? You know how exposed we were? I"m surprised we got out of there alive. If it wasn"t for your shooting ability we"d be dead right now. We"ll, you"d be dead as well. My point is; we should"ve died up in those Afghan mountains. We should"ve died with our faces buried in the mud. That"s what should"ve happened. But you kept us alive, Kenji. You"re a G.o.dd.a.m.n hero."

"I"m not a hero. I was just following orders. I was just..."

"Yeah, yeah. Semper Fi, right? Always faithful. Right to the end. Even when we get ordered up into the mountains for some bulls.h.i.t a.s.signment. They were digging a very large grave. Do you know anything about a proper Islamic burial? What am I saying? Of course you do. You"re a smart guy. Islamic tradition dictates that a burial include bathing the body, wrapping the body in white cloth, burying the body so that it faces Mecca. Did it look like they followed any of those rituals? I don"t think the Koran says anything about being thrown unceremoniously into a ma.s.s grave. Anyway, I"m just rambling on now. You were there. You saw how messed up the whole situation was."

"Yeah," I said. "It was messed up."

"Oh, and I don"t think I ever said thanks."

"Thanks? For what?"

"For saving my life. Like I said, we should"ve died on that mountain. We should"ve been shot to pieces. You saved my life. You"re a good soldier. And I don"t care what you think, you are a hero."

I shook my head. I was about to tell him that I was no hero. That we should"ve been more careful in Woomera. He"d still be alive if we were more careful and if I didn"t hesitate. But he was gone.

When I got back to our room, Jack and Maria were awake.

"What was that noise?" Maria asked.

"A couple of jets. Sonic boom."

"A what?"

"Sonic boom. When a jet breaks the sound barrier."

"Oh."

Jack looked hopeful. "Do you think the military are coming back? Do you think they"ll organize rescue operation for Maria?"

"I honestly don"t know."

"We should get to work on that sign as soon as possible," Maria said.

I knew she was right but I didn"t feel like it at that moment. What was the point? Even if the military saw the sign would they rescue us? Would they be able to?

I don"t know.

The hope of being rescued was giving us strength and energy but I think it was also making us delusional. We were sitting back, hoping that we would be saved, waiting for our knight in shining armor or whatever. When I look back it was obvious we were on our own. They weren"t coming back for us. Not even for Maria. If we had any chance of survival, we would need to get out of this city. And we would have to do it alone.

March 1st - The choices we make We"re going back in. I"m probably not going to get much sleep tonight. Our plan to escape the city didn"t work out so well for us last time but we have to keep taking calculated risks. We can"t just sit here in the stadium, waiting to be rescued.

That ain"t gonna happen.

We might as well be waiting to die.

So we decided that we had to make the move. Like I said, hope gave us strength and courage. And right now, we need strength and courage to go back into the city So we"re going back in.

Let me explain how we got to this point of desperation. A few days ago we heard a huge explosion. This time we all went up to the roof to check it out.

None of us could"ve of expected what we saw. It was a huge red, mushroom cloud. It kept getting bigger and bigger.

"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Maria asked.

Jack looked worried. "Did they just drop a nuclear bomb on Sydney?"

"I... I don"t know. I don"t think so. It hasn"t destroyed anything. The buildings we can see are still standing. And after an explosion like that, they most definitely should not be standing. And if it was a nuclear bomb there would be damage, fires. We would"ve felt the shockwave, the blast wave. The heat wave."

"So what the h.e.l.l is it?" Jack repeated.

"I don"t know. It could be a different kind of weapon?"

"A different kind? What do you mean?"

"You know, to stop the infected."

"Do you think it"s poisonous?" Maria asked.

"It could be. We should get inside. Close the doors. The windows. Everything."

The mushroom cloud continued to grow bigger, wider and higher. It had almost covered the entire city and it showed no signs of slowing down. Maybe this was the military"s last chance, their last roll of the dice.

Whatever the h.e.l.l it was, I hope it worked.

Dust Storm or h.e.l.l on Earth Over the next couple of days the city became engulfed in a huge dust storm. Surprisingly we also heard more activity, more noises coming from the city center. We could hear jet engines and choppers. More explosions.

I really wanted to go back up to the roof to check it out. But I wasn"t sure if that was such a good idea to go outside in the middle of a giant dust storm that might be some sort of poisonous, biological weapon.

However, a couple of days later we heard another chopper fly overhead. It sounded close. A few minutes later we heard more explosions and more jets flying over the city. We argued about going back into the city. Well, I argued. Jack and Maria were just trying to talk me out of it.

"We gotta go," I said. "There could be people, other survivors. Maybe soldiers. If I can meet up with some marines or rangers or whatever, I could get us help. Get us out of here."

Jack shook his head. "Kenji, it"s too risky. It"s too dangerous. For all we know, they"re ordered to shoot anything that moves. You could just be getting yourself killed. It"s not worth it. We need you here. Maria needs you here!"

"They won"t shoot me. I"m in uniform. They won"t shoot one of their own."

"How do you know that?"

Another chopper flew overhead. Another explosion.

"I"ll be careful. I"ll stay hidden. I"ll only approach anyone if I think it"s safe. Trust me. We need this. We"re running low on food and water. We need this."

Jack was still against it. He kept saying it wasn"t safe. "You hear those explosions? That"s not a good sound. In fact I would go so far as to say the sound of an explosion is a really, really bad thing."

"There"s gotta be supplies in there," I continued. "The military pulled out in a big hurry. That means they would"ve left stuff behind. Vehicles, equipment. We can find something. Weapons. Radios. Something. We could find better walkie-talkies and contact someone, anyone. Even the military. And we can find out what the h.e.l.l is going on in there. Recon is an important exercise."

"What about the dust storm?" Maria asked.

"The dust isn"t poisonous," I said.

"How can you be sure?"

"Well, I guess we can"t be sure. But the dust is everywhere now. It"s covered the entire city and the outer suburbs. It"s spread up and down the coast as far as we can see. Everything is covered in it. There"s even dust inside now. There"s a thin coat on all the tables and chairs, and the walls. If it was poisonous, we"d be dead by now."

Jack reluctantly agreed. I think in the end he knew that in order to get Maria out of the city we needed to do this.

He held his hands up in defeat. "Fine. We go in," Jack said. "But I"m coming with you. And Maria stays here."

I nodded. "Agree."

Maria on the other hand did not like the idea at all. "No way. No G.o.dd.a.m.n way are you leaving me here by myself. Are you both mad?"

"It"s too dangerous to take you back into the city," Jack said. "We barely got out alive last time."

"So? You can"t just leave me. It"s... I mean this place. It"s h.e.l.l on earth. This is no place to be alone."

She broke down. She started crying.

I think she knew it was the right thing to do. I"ll admit being alone would be terrifying. But she would be safe inside these walls.

So Jack and I are going back in. And I"m probably not going to get much sleep tonight.

March 2nd - Straight to h.e.l.l We knew the risks involved. We knew what we were doing was extremely dangerous. But we were prepared. We were vigilant. And when we found the armored Humvee we figured our prayers had been answered. It was built like a tank. It had armored doors, reinforced windows and a 50cal heavy machine gun on the roof. It was perfect.

It was our ticket out of the city.

But once again, everything has gone straight to h.e.l.l.

I"ve told Jack about a million times in the past five minutes that we did the right thing. Leaving Maria inside the stadium was the right thing to do. I think I"m trying to convince myself more than anyone.

We woke early. Maybe because we had been resting all week. Or maybe because we were too nervous and too scared to sleep. We moved down to the lower levels and raided the locker rooms for towels to wrap around our faces to protect against the dust storm. And before we left we told Maria to have the radio on her at all times.

Jack and Maria then hugged.

"Don"t worry," Jack whispered. "We"ll be back before you know it."

I wanted to tell him not to say stuff like that. Don"t make promises you can"t keep.

But I didn"t.