We got through the blockade and over the coastline without incident. A few minutes later we began our descent for landing.

The first thing I noticed when we broke through the clouds was just how red everything was. A dusty, deep, burgundy red. The color of blood.

We landed as the sun was setting on what appeared to be an abandoned road in the middle of nowhere. As we came to a stop at the end of the makeshift runway and turned around, I saw a large helicopter with two massive rotor blades take off in a mini-tornado of red dust.

“What’s that?” I asked Daniel.

“That’s our supply drop. It drops in fuel, food, ammo. But it’s heading back to the Dark Crystal.”

“The Dark Crystal?”

“Yeah, that’s the name of our ship. It’s a bit dramatic, I know.”

“Where’s the ship?”

“Off the coast.”

“Won’t the navy blockade see it?”

“No. Like I said, this area isn’t as heavily patrolled as the rest of the country and the ship itself has stealth capabilities.”

“Wow, you guys are all about stealth, huh?”

“Being invisible is the only thing that matters in our line of work.”

Daniel began to turn the jet around so we were pointed back towards the camp. I looked out the front window of the cockpit and saw a desert camouflaged Humvee driving alongside us. The huge vehicle reminded me of my first close encounter with the Oz Virus at the North Sydney police station and our high speed escape. I remembered Kim’s amazing and expert driving in the thunder storm. I remembered Kenji being all cool and calm and collected. And basically saving our lives. I remembered throwing grenades and blowing up the interrogation room. I remembered poor old Officer Dennis and the huge shard of glass stuck in his leg, his blue uniform, covered in blood, turning it a weird purple color.

The memory seems surreal, like a strange dream. Or nightmare. It’s amazing to think that at the time we thought we were being attacked by drugged out psychos. We were so blind to what was happening. So in denial.

A car horn snapped my attention back to the present. There was one guy driving the Humvee and one guy on the back standing up, manning a massive gun that was mounted on the roof. His eyes were scanning the hazy, dusty horizon, back and forth, like a robot guardian. He was on high alert. The guy driving made eye contact with me and gave me a little salute and then he sped off back towards the camp.

I couldn’t see the camp clearly because of the dust, but it appeared to be more than just a tent like I was expecting. There seemed to be a perimeter fence which was basically made up of six thin wires that ran right around the camp. I guess maybe it was more than just a fence. It was probably electrified because otherwise it wouldn’t be very secure. It certainly didn’t look very sturdy. It was about twelve feet high with each wire spaced a couple of feet apart.

I could also see a few machine guns on tripods. I counted eight. They were spaced evenly apart around the perimeter. Inside the fence there was a metal, rectangular storage container and a domed shape tent the size of a camper van. It kind of looked like an igloo.

Next to the tent and storage container were two large black air craft that looked like a cross between a plane and a helicopter. And next to those was another Humvee.

There was a guy standing on top of the storage container. He was keeping a look out as well. He was a tall guy, huge actually. He raised his rifle up to his shoulder and looked through the scope. His movements reminded me of Kenji.

These guys were definitely spooked. And yet we were supposedly in the middle of nowhere.

Daniel parked the X-wing next to the camp and shut the engines off. We exited the jet. The guy driving the Humvee met us at the foot of the doorway steps. He was a big, solid guy with a thick neck. He was wearing sunglasses and a bandana over his mouth so I couldn’t really see him properly. But he had wide, broad shoulders and everything about him was rough and rugged.

He shook hands with Daniel. “Welcome to hell.”

“Hell? Looks more like Mars.”

“Yeah, or the end of the world. You better lock her up,” he said referring to the jet. “And get in the Humvee. We need to get back inside the perimeter ASAP.”

Even this guy’s voice was rough, I thought.

“Thanks for the VIP escort, Griffin. But I don’t think that’s really necessary. And I think you’re scaring Rebecca.”

“Trust me, Hudson. It’s necessary.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“There’s been some issues.”

“Issues?”

“A pack of wild dogs have been roaming this area. We think they’re infected. They’re big suckers too. They look something like a cross between a wolf and a dingo. On steroids. They almost overwhelmed us when we first landed; they took us completely by surprise. Came outta nowhere. We had to take off pretty quick. We used the minigun on the Osprey to clear them out. The aftermath is just over there.”

Over to my right, about thirty yards away, I could just make out a pile of carcasses scattered on the dusty, red ground.

“Wait a second, do we even know if the infection can be carried by animals?” Daniel asked.

“Heck if I know,” Griffin answered. “But we ain’t takin any chances. We’ve set up a perimeter. It’s electrified. Doesn’t look like much, but the charge is enough to put an elephant down for good. So it should be enough to deal with the dogs. We’ve also set up sentinel turrets.”

“Jesus. You’ve set up sentinels?”

“Yeah. They’re offline at the moment. So we should probably get inside the perimeter so we can turn them back on.”

As big as this guy was, and as tough as he was, he looked visibly worried. Both soldiers did, especially the guy on the gun.

“I thought this area was supposed to be clear?” Daniel said.

“Yeah, so did we. Imagine our surprise when we got ambushed by a pack of wild dogs, or wolves or dingoes or whatever the hell they are. Ferocious mutts, let me tell you.”

“Come on fellas, let’s go,” the guy manning the gun said. “We better get inside the perimeter.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to leave the jet outside?” I asked Daniel.

“Well, it’s not ideal but I doubt there’s anyone out here who could hot-wire or even fly this bad boy.”

“What about the dust? Won’t that clog the engines or something?”

“No. It was designed for heavy use in the desert. It’s designed to handle the dust.”

“All right, that’s enough bragging about your baby,” Griffin said. “Let’s go.”

He was trying to sound light hearted but I could clearly make out the fear in his voice. There was an urgency and seriousness to what he was saying. He did not want to be out in the open like this. And I gotta say, neither did I. Not with the mass grave of wild dogs only thirty yards away.

So we jumped inside the Humvee and Griffin drove the short distance to the camp. A section of the fence became slack and was lowered to the ground and we drove over it. Once inside, it was raised back up and presumably re-electrified.

Griffin parked the car next to the weird looking aircraft. As we walked passed them and made our way towards the igloo shaped tent, I asked Daniel what the hell they were. They each had two massive propellers but they were pointing up so they were more like twin rotor blades, like on a helicopter.

“They’re called Osprey’s,” he answered. “The propellers are rotatable. So it can hover like a helicopter or fly like a plane. They’re ideal for this kind of mission.”

“So they’re like a two in one.”

“Yeah. It’s basically a Transformer,” he joked. “More than meets the eye.”

I guess we’d be taking one of those into Sydney.

We continued our way towards the igloo shaped tent. The dust wasn’t as bad as we’d seen in the stolen military footage but it was still pretty bad. We had to shield our eyes and I had to cover my nose and mouth.

But just before we stepped inside, the wind intensified and I had to bury my face into my shoulder. And off in the distance we heard what sounded like the cry of a lone wolf.