Distant thunder rolled through the city.

A flash of lightning lit up the room and I counted the seconds in my head to gauge how far away the lightning was. I counted to three. Thunder crackled and rolled and echoed through the city. Did three seconds equal three miles?

The man was sitting there in the dark with a lit match in his hand. He just claimed that he created the Oz virus. Why would anyone say that?

“Excuse me?” I asked in disbelief. “You created the Oz virus?”

He nodded his head slowly.

“Why? Why would you do such a thing?”

“I told you. I sold my soul to the devil.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means I worked on the project from day one,” he said. “It was just me and two other doctors. They called us the ‘holy trinity’. I think some people thought we were miracle workers. At some point I started to believe the hype. At the very least I thought I was going to save lives. I thought what we were doing was for the greater good.”

More thunder rolled and echoed and vibrated through the city and I couldn’t quite make out what he said. It sounded like he said it was for the greater good. But I couldn’t be sure.

I was just about to ask him what he said when someone turned the lights on. It was Kenji. He had the shotgun pointed directly at the man sitting on the couch.

“Step back, Rebecca.”

I was relieved to see him but was also worried he was about to fire the shotgun. I had a feeling that this guy, as crazy as he seemed, knew something. “It’s OK,” I said to Kenji.

“Is it?” he replied.

“Yeah. Well, sort of. How did you even know I was here?”

“Kim woke up and saw that you were gone,” Kenji said as he kept his eyes fixed on the man sitting on the couch. “Then she realized her gun was missing. I went to find you. I heard your voices. What’s going on here?”

I nodded my head towards the crazy man. “He just said that he created the Oz virus.”

Kenji seemed to lose his composure. He lowered the gun slightly while the implications of what he just heard ticked over in his head. “Is that true?” he asked.

The man blew out the match in his hand. He picked up a bottle of scotch that was sitting on the coffee table and took a swig. “You look like a Marine who has seen some things,” he said, ignoring Kenji’s question. “Let me guess, you served in Afghanistan?”

Kenji furrowed his brow.

“And you were only recently called into Woomera as part of the containment crew. Shoot to kill were your orders, am I right?”

Kenji raised the shotgun back up. “How do you know that?”

“I can tell by the look in your eyes.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your eyes are the gateway to your soul. If you look a man in the eyes, I mean really look him in the eyes, you can find out everything you need to know about him.”

“Is that right? So you know everything about me, huh?”

The man was looking directly at Kenji. “That’s right.”

“And what do you know?”

“Right now your eyes are telling me that you’ve seen things no man should ever have seen, that you’ve done things no man should ever have done.”

Kenji was in a trance, like he was being hypnotized by a sorcerer who was reading his mind and predicting his future or something.

“Your eyes are telling me you’re smart, that you were smart enough to run, smart enough to stay alive when everyone else died.”

Kenji blinked a couple of times and shook his head. “OK, that’s enough talk. You’re coming with us.”

“What?” I said. “We can’t bring him with us!”

“I’m not leaving him here by himself. And if what he said about the virus is true, then he needs to be held accountable.”

The man chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Kenji asked.

“You don’t get it do you? There’s no one left to hold me accountable. It’s over.”

The man was starting to scare us both. I think he was drunk. So we decided it would be best if Kenji kept guard over him in the penthouse.

As I was leaving, Kenji grabbed me by the arm and took me out into the hallway. He grabbed me kind of hard and went right off at me for wandering around on my own.

“What were you thinking?” he said, struggling to keep his voice low. “We haven’t secured the rest of the building yet. And you know the security cameras don’t show the rooms.”

The truth was, I wasn’t thinking at all. I was sleep deprived, exhausted. I was in shock. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I couldn’t sleep. Whenever I closed my eyes I kept seeing dead people floating in the water. Some of them were moving. Some of them were looking right at me.”

He took a deep breath. “I know it’s hard. But that’s why we have to stick together. We’re stronger as a group. If just one person decides to act alone, then we’re all in trouble.”

I knew he was right. I don’t know what I would’ve done if Maria or Jack or Kim went off by themselves. I had to stop being so selfish. I was part of a group now and we were all relying on each other to survive.

“Try and get some rest,” he said. “I’m going to stay here and keep watch. I don’t trust this guy one bit. And try not to wake the others. They need their sleep. We’ll be making some big, important decisions tomorrow and everyone needs to be switched on mentally.”

I descended the stairs to our floor in a daze and slipped back into our room as quietly as I could. Kim was the only one awake, although she was fighting to keep her eyes open.

“What happened?” she asked. “Where did you go?”

“I just went for a walk,” I whispered. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Rebecca, don’t scare us like that. Where is Kenji?”

“He’s still upstairs. He said he’ll be down soon.”

I felt bad about lying but I could tell she was exhausted. Jack and Maria were still in a deep sleep and as soon as Kim knew everyone was OK, she passed out as well. I collapsed on my bed feeling angry with myself for putting the group in danger. What if they had all decided to come and search for me? What if something happened? It would’ve been my fault and I’m not sure I’d be able to live with myself with that kind of guilt. Coming to grips with how stupid I’d been was not making it any easier to sleep.