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 pa.s.sed.

Another lifetime.

And then it erupted.

There was a blinding flash of light. The shockwave pressed into me. The noise destroyed my hearing.

The light, the shockwave, the noise.

Everything happened at once.

The red hot shrapnel smashed into the jetty and the boat. A huge chunk of wood crashed down on top of me.

My world turned dark.

The sound of my own beating heart was the only thing I could hear, the only thing that told me I was still alive.

Chaos I couldn"t see and I couldn"t hear. I was in bad shape. I needed those two senses if I wanted any hope of staying alive. My heart was still beating like a G.o.dd.a.m.n jackhammer. Thumping, like the rotor blades of a helicopter. There was a loud ringing in my ears. Almost as loud as my beating heart. I threw the piece of wood off me. Scrambled to my feet. I was so disorientated. I had completely lost my bearings. I had no idea which way I was facing.

Suddenly another explosion erupted in the harbor. A much bigger explosion. I turned around in time to see a section of the footbridge being blown up. Concrete, bitumen and wood flew in all directions, crashing into the water. I was instantly confused.

Had they set charges to blow the footbridge? Why would they do that?

Another explosion erupted way overhead. The side of a building was partially destroyed. Concrete and gla.s.s rained down into the marina and the harbor. Then I saw what had caused the explosions. It was the tank. It was over near the casino building.

Slowly I regained my senses. The bridge had taken a direct hit from the tank. The tank was completely covered in the infected. Like ants attacking a larger insect. The driver of the tank was freaking out. You could tell by the way he was driving. Forwards. Reverse. Then forwards again. The main gun swiveled around back and forth. They were trying to shake the infected off but it wasn"t working.

The men in black were losing their ground support.

I could hear the two closest soldiers behind the concrete slab, shouting at each other in confusion. They knew if they lost the tank they were in big trouble.

"What the h.e.l.l is going on?" one of them shouted. "Where are the G.o.dd.a.m.n choppers?"

They"re busy elsewhere, I thought. I knew how they felt. I could see the soldiers hesitate. All of a sudden they weren"t firing at me. They weren"t targeting me. They weren"t even looking at me.

The horde.

It was just a few at first.

The tank fired another wayward shot. The sh.e.l.l rocked into the casino building. More concrete and more gla.s.s showered the street and the harbor. The tank was slowly moving away. The driver probably had no idea where he was going. It wouldn"t be long until it crashed into the side of the casino building. Maybe even the harbor. The driver should stop. Wait for reinforcements to pick off the infected. He should stay calm.

Easier said than done.

A crowd of infected rushed into the street closest to the harbor.

The men in black opened fire.

I was no longer a priority.

In the confusion, I made my move. I headed for a bigger boat. One of the harbor cruise boats. It had suffered a lot of damage in the missile strike from yesterday and had taken on water. It was listing to one side. I made my way to one of the upper floors, climbing the narrow stairwell. I climbed three floors and crouched under a window so I could keep an eye on everything. I checked my ammo. I had two magazines left.

Sixty bullets.

I peeked out the window. The men in black were getting overrun. I took aim, fired at the infected. And for a few minutes the Special Forces team and I were fighting on the same side. Fighting a common enemy.

I could hear the soldiers screaming though. Confusion and panic spreading through the team like wildfire.

I could hear them on the radio as well. Calling for an extraction. Calling for aerial support.

"Where is the target?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Target is secure," someone answered.

They were talking about Maria. They came for her. She was their target.

"Get to the extraction point. Now!"

The Special Forces soldiers moved back across the bridge. They were going to try and get to wherever their extraction point was. The problem with their plan was the extraction point was probably crawling with infected.

Suddenly the thumping of rotor blades filled the sky.

A Blackhawk helicopter flew in low over the surrounding buildings and set down at the city end of the harbor. A group of men in black were running for their lives towards it. In the middle of the group was Maria. She was protected on all sides by the soldiers.

They carried and hurried her towards the waiting chopper.

Maria was running hunched over. She was not trying to escape. The rest of the soldiers provided cover fire and so did I. If anything was to happen to Maria, I wouldn"t be able to live with myself. I made the call to leave her. And at that moment I thought she wasn"t going to make it.

"She"s not going to make it."

They are being chased by hundreds of infected. And for a second I think to myself there is no way.

It"s all my fault.

They are not going to make it.

There"s too many.

Missiles streaked in from high above the city skyline, slamming into the road outside of the casino. The warheads erupted in a wall of fire.

The foundations of the casino building were rocked again and the whole building was partially destroyed. The whole building began to sway.

More missiles.

The force of the warheads pressed into my body. The heat from the explosions burned my face and I had to look away. When I looked back the tank had been completely blown apart. Armored steel and iron had been scattered in all directions, all over the road and the harbor.

The missiles were heavy duty. Tank busting missiles. h.e.l.lfire missiles. Hovering above the sky sc.r.a.pers, out near the main harbor were the gunships.

The Apache helicopters.

Two more h.e.l.lfire missiles streaked towards the horde of infected, dangerously close to the Blackhawk and Maria. The missiles cleared out a large number of infected. The gunships hovered in closer, using their chain guns to pick off the remaining infected.

The chase was over.

The Apaches fell back in a hurry. They flew up and out of the harbor. Towards the inner city. Their job was not over. Nowhere near over.

The men in black carried Maria into the chopper.

They took off immediately.

And I actually let out a cheer.

I looked around for another point of cover. Maybe I could even make a run for it to one of the skysc.r.a.pers in the city, I thought. Rest up for a few days.

I decided to wait until all of the soldiers had completely fallen back. I did not want to risk being spotted.

The Blackhawk took off slowly and moved out over the water. But then once again, everything went straight to h.e.l.l.

The tail of the Blackhawk swung out violently. The whole chopper began to spiral. It was out of control like the d.a.m.n thing had been hit by an RPG, or one of those h.e.l.lfire missiles.

It continued to spiral.

There was no stopping it. The pilot had lost control.

A split second later the Blackhawk crashed in the harbor. Right in the water.

Only the strong survive The rest of the men in black had cleared out. They were either dead or had retreated, under the impression that their target was secure.

I was scanning the water, looking for survivors.

All I could see were bodies.

Infected or not. I couldn"t tell.

I fired off a couple of rounds but then realized there was really no point. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was up and running for the chopper. I"d left the safety of my hiding spot, exposed for any sniper or any soldier with a half decent aim. Exposed to the infected.

I braced myself for a bullet in the back. But the shot never came.

I kept running.

The voice in my head kept yelling at me. Blaming me.

"This is all your fault."

"You left her."

"You made the call."

"If she"s dead now, it"s all on you."

"Her blood. Your head."

"No. It was the right thing. We had to leave her. It was the right thing to do. Maria needs out of here, out of this city, out 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.