We fled the police station in the middle of the night, in a United States military Humvee. Kenji told, or rather ordered Kim to drive because he didn’t know the way to the hospital, and because he wanted to ride shotgun in case he needed to provide covering fire. I wanted to ask him, covering fire from what? But I was too scared of the answer. So Kim drove at top speed, taking up both lanes, driving over median strips with ease.

Rain pelted the windshield. I had no idea how Kim could see anything, but she kept her foot planted firmly on the accelerator. I was in the back with Maria, Jack, and poor Officer Dennis.

Officer Dennis still had the foot-long shard of glass in his leg but he didn’t seem to mind. “I know it looks gross,” he said. “But I can’t even feel it. Is that weird?”

Jack mentioned something about adrenalin and how it’s a great pain killer.

While everybody else was talking about the body’s natural pain killers, I couldn’t stop thinking about Kenji and how much he had changed, how much he had grown. He was so different to the boy I used to know, especially when he had a rifle up to his shoulder. He was two years older than me, but growing up we were always pretty much the same size. Now he was at least half a foot taller than me and I could tell he had filled out.

The weather had turned from bad to worse. Every few minutes a lightning bolt would streak across the sky. Outside the Humvee, I thought I could hear gun shots and explosions. But it might have just been the thunder. Everything was chaotic.

Despite all the distractions, Kim was able to keep us on the road. She was actually a very good driver. I guess she’d had training at the academy.

Kenji was constantly looking through the scope of his rifle out into the darkness. He would look out the window into the pitch black and then look through the scope. “Slow down,” he said.

“Yeah, I’ll slow down when you tell me what the hell is going on,” Kim replied.

Jack chimed in from the back. “Yeah. What exactly is the US military doing here? Like, what’s your mission?”

Kenji’s eyes checked the rear view mirror and the side mirrors. “Can’t tell you that. It’s classified.”

“Classified?”

“I’m just a grunt anyway. They don’t tell us anything. I’m just here to do a job.”

“So what’s your job?”

“The quarantine. To keep you guys safe.”

“Could you be anymore vague?” Maria said.

“Trust me, the less you know the better.”

Kenji’s words weren’t very reassuring, but at that point we were more concerned with getting Officer Dennis to the emergency department so he didn’t bleed to death.

The sad thing was, Officer Dennis was beyond saving. And it wasn’t because he had a sword sized piece of glass in his leg that was right next to his femoral artery. It was because in approximately twenty minutes or so, he was going to become a dead man anyway, or undead, or living dead or whatever the hell you call it. That’s why he didn’t feel any pain. It wasn’t the adrenalin. It was the virus. But at the time we didn’t know that. All we knew was if the shard of glass was to cut his femoral artery, then the poor guy would bleed to death in three minutes. So we kept on driving.

We arrived at the hospital a few minutes later. It was absolute pandemonium. There were thousands of people out the front trying to storm the entrance. It’s amazing what fear and panic will do to people. Kim was forced to slow down so she didn’t run anyone over. People started banging on the side of the Humvee.

“What the hell is going on?” Kim asked.

It looked like the military had set up a barricade, blocking anyone from entering the hospital. The angry mob was shaking the temporary fence. Some people were even trying to climb it but stopped as soon as they realized there was razor wire at the top.

“Drive around the back,” Kenji suggested.

Kim beeped the horn and revved the engine, scaring people out of the way. We avoided the crowd and drove to the rear of the hospital. Kenji was able to smooth talk our way through several check points before we were eventually ordered out of the car at gun point by soldiers who appeared to be wearing space suits. They looked like they were out of a sci-fi movie. It was unsettling to wonder why they needed to wear such heavy duty gear.

We were then escorted by the soldiers to an isolated wing of the hospital. Officer Dennis had his leg inspected and was promptly put on a bed and wheeled away.

Maria, Jack, Kim and I were locked in a room together. Kenji was taken away for ‘debriefing’.

“What now?” Jack asked. “Can we go home?”

“I don’t really feel like arguing with strange men carrying machine guns,” Kim said.

She made an excellent point. The men in the suits made me anxious. Apart from the fact they were pointing guns at us, they looked like soulless, killer robots.

“Isn’t your mother a nurse?” Maria asked.

“She doesn’t work at this hospital,” I replied.

“Oh.”

“OK, as soon as they let us go, I think we should go straight home,” Jack said.

Kim looked at her brother. “And do you still want to walk home?”

“So maybe walking home wasn’t the best idea. But I didn’t realize things were getting so out of control. Is it like this all over?”

“In certain areas it’s getting pretty crazy,” Kim said. “Most of the looting and riots are happening at the grocery stores and the pharmacies. I think people just want to stock up on supplies, prepare for the worst. Rebecca, maybe you should come home with us? I think it’s getting a little dangerous to be at home on your own.”

“I totally agree.”

Kim told everyone to remain calm. “Guys, just remember, we’re at a hospital. This is the best place for us to be right now. If there is some sort of killer virus then we’re in the best place to get treatment. Just think of all those people outside. We’re pretty lucky when you think about it.”

I suppose we were lucky to be inside an actual hospital where we could get treatment or a vaccine or whatever. It sure beat being stuck on the other side of a fence topped with razor wire.

A few minutes later the soldiers in the space suits were back. They dragged us down the corridor and into what could’ve been an operating room. We were then separated. I don’t know what happened to the others, but I was taken to a little room. The room was just like any doctor’s office. There was a desk and a bed. There was a poster on the wall explaining how to prevent type two diabetes.

A man in a space suit who could’ve been a killer robot pushed me into the room and sat me down. “Wait here,” he said.

“Hey, where did you take my friends?”

He didn’t answer me. When he left, two other soldiers and a doctor entered the room. They were all wearing space suits and the soldiers were carrying rifles, like the one Kenji had.

The doctor introduced himself to me. He said his name was Doctor Hunter. He had a soothing voice. It had a calming, almost hypnotic effect on me.

“Please, Rebecca,” he said. “Sit on the bed for me. I need to ask you some questions.”