It wouldn’t be long before the infected pouring out of the underground road found us. They would zero in on us like some sort of wicked, heat seeking, biological weapon of mass destruction. So we all started running down the fairway of the golf course, sticking to the tree line. Just in case.

After a few minutes, Daniel and I were a fair distance in front of the others, so we had to slow down. And every now and then, Daniel would stop altogether to make sure Jack, Maria and Kenji were all right. He would hang back and make sure we weren’t being followed and then he’d catch up.

I’m not sure how fast we could ‘jog’ in the NBC suits. I say ‘jog’, because that’s what it felt like. It felt like a light and easy and enjoyable jog. But in reality, Daniel and I were probably running at least twenty miles an hour.

I was just getting into a rhythm when the golf course ended abruptly and suburbia started. I crouched at the edge of the course. I stared at the houses and the nice cars and the neat driveways. It looked so empty, so completely void of life.

Kenji, Jack and Maria caught up to me. They crouched down, breathing hard. They studied the suburban streets with worried expressions on their faces.

They knew what a place like this could be hiding. They knew better than anyone.

Daniel was still behind us somewhere. I looked back down the fairway but I couldn’t see him. He may have had his cloaking device activated.

I checked the GPS again. The little blue ball was sitting at the edge of the first golf course. In front of us was about four or five blocks of houses, and then the next golf course started.

Daniel eventually caught up to us. “There’s nothing back there,” he said. “We’re in the clear.”

“Not necessarily,” I said, pointing towards the houses.

Daniel checked his GPS device. “OK, we’ve got a few blocks of suburbia before the next golf course. No big deal.”

“Do we go around?” I asked.

“I don’t think there is an ‘around’,” Maria informed me.

I looked back at the map on the GPS. She was right. The golf course was surrounded by block after block of suburbia. The next golf course was the only difference in the landscape.

“Our best option is to take the most direct route,” Daniel said. “We sprint down this road, sticking to the middle of the street. It’s only for a few blocks. And then we’re out on the other side, on to the next golf course.”

We all knelt there for a second, catching our breath, trying not to imagine all the horrors that could be hiding out of sight.

“I thought you said all the golf courses were connected, one after the other?” Jack asked me.

“Well, they are,” I said. “Except for this one. And it’s only separated by a few blocks. The next golf course is just down this road.”

And on the map it didn’t look that far at all. But in reality, down on ground level, it looked like a never ending sprawl of houses and side streets and picket fences and two car garages.

“But anything could be hiding in these streets,” Maria said. “These houses could be full of infected people or spider monsters or whatever.”

Kenji shook his head. “I’m not so sure. I think most of the people living in the suburbs closest to the city would’ve been evacuated, or forced to leave their homes.”

“By the military?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. So there’s a good chance they could be deserted.”

“But there’s also a good chance these houses aren’t deserted,” I said as I started to feel guilty for suggesting this route. “Just like the fuel station.”

Daniel stood up and took a step towards the suburban street. “Look, we don’t have a choice. This is the most direct route. This is the quickest way. If we take any longer, if we deviate from our course, we could get lost. Or worse, we could get stranded. It’s already mid-afternoon. We’ve only got a few hours of sunlight left. I do not want to be walking these streets at night.”

He was right. We really didn’t have a choice. We just had to grit our teeth and run for it.

“All right, let’s go,” Kenji said. “Everyone keep your eyes peeled. And stay alert.”

We made our move, sticking close together this time. We were in sort of a diamond formation. Daniel was at the front and Kenji and I were at the rear. Jack and Maria were in the center.

We stuck to the middle of the street. There was no real point in checking down each driveway or down each side street to see if anything was there. We just had to keep running. We only had one destination and that was the golf course a few blocks away.

I think we initially tried to run as quietly as possible, making sure our footsteps were soft and our breathing was controlled. But after awhile, we started running faster and faster. Our footsteps became louder and so did our breathing.

About five minutes later, the road swerved around to the left and ran alongside the golf course. We jumped over a small fence and made it back out into the open of the fairways.

Being back out in the open was a huge relief, like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt like it was easier to breathe. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had led us into a trap.

We followed the course as it connected to the next one. We then skirted around a large water feature that was big enough to be a lake. The terrain then turned into sort of a marshland or swamp. Up ahead we could see the airport.

We were about two and a half miles away from the very edge of the airport’s boundary fence. Luckily the natural vegetation, the trees and the long grass of the swamp provided us with plenty of cover so we weren’t exposed.

Daniel was out in front of the group when he stopped. He was hiding in amongst a patch of long grass, like a lion would as it watched its prey.

He waved us over.

I made it to him first, and we had to wait a few minutes while Jack, Kenji and Maria caught up. When they finally arrived, they were breathing hard. But to their credit, each of them had a quiet and determined look on their face. Amazingly, they seemed to be coping quite well with all the running. I guess their fitness levels had increased over the past few weeks. It was pretty amazing how the human body could adapt and make itself stronger when it was forced to.

“Remember the plan,” Daniel said. “Rebecca and I will go in and make contact. If anything goes wrong, we’ll be running back here while Kenji provides cover fire.”

We nodded our heads in agreement. Although I think we sort of ignored the fact that if we were running away from the military, it would be slightly different than running away from the infected. The biggest difference being they would have guns. And bombs.

But I guess we still had one major advantage. We’d be running back into hostile territory. And I’d bet my last dollar they wouldn’t chase us very far. No freaking way.

“OK, who has the radio?” I asked, looking at Jack.

“I don’t have it,” he replied. “I thought you had it?”

“I don’t have it.”

I looked at Maria, pleading with my eyes, but she shook her head.

“Kenji?” I asked.

“I never had it.”

“We must’ve left it in the Humvee,” I said.

In my mind’s eye, I could picture it resting on the dashboard of the Humvee. Just sitting there, completely out of reach and completely useless.

“What about your suits?” Kenji asked. “Do they have built in comms?”

“They do,” Daniel answered. “But they’re only tuned to communicate with a specific frequency. To each other, basically.”

“So if you can communicate with each other, one of you stay and one of you go,” Kenji said.

“My radio doesn’t work,” I said. “I think it was busted when I fell out of the Osprey.”

“What’s an Osprey?” Maria asked.

“It’s like an airplane.”

“You fell out of a plane?”

“Yeah. We were attacked in midair.”

“We don’t know that we were attacked,” Daniel said, as if he was in denial.

“Well, an engine blew up or something,” I continued. “But yeah, I fell out. Luckily I was wearing a parachute, but I still hit the ground pretty hard. If I wasn’t wearing this suit, I would’ve died. After the fall, I tried using the radio thingy built into my helmet, but it didn’t work. There was just too much static and it was making too much noise. I had to throw it away.”

“So, basically we have no radio,” Jack said. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“This doesn’t change anything,” Daniel said. “Rebecca and I will still get as close as we can and try and make contact. We’re still running the same risks. Nothing has changed. The radio was a piece of crap anyway,” he said in an attempt to calm everyone down.

I guess playing the blame game did more harm than good. We needed to stick together, not tear each other apart.

“Just like before,” Daniel continued. “We go in with our cloaks activated. And Kenji will cover us. How much ammo do you have left?”

“I’m out,” Kenji answered.

Daniel slid the magazine out of his rifle and handed it to Kenji. “I think there’s about half a mag in there.”

Kenji put his empty magazine in his pocket and re-loaded with Daniel’s half mag of ammo.

Wow. Half a mag. I’m no expert in guns or anything but half a mag of ammunition was not good. It couldn’t be any more than fifteen or so bullets. If we were attacked right now, we wouldn’t have the option of shooting to defend ourselves. At least not for very long.

“All right, let’s get this over with,” I said.

“Wait, how will you make contact with the military?” Maria asked.

“We’ll find a way,” Daniel said.

Jack then suggested something about how we could make a smoke signal. And even though he was joking around and trying to lighten the mood it was actually a good idea.

“Good luck,” Maria said.

Kenji finished loading his rifle and moved off to find a vantage point. I felt like hugging him, hugging all of them. I wanted a proper good bye. Just in case. But maybe it was better to get this over with as quickly as possible.

Daniel and I activated our cloaking devices and headed towards the airport.

We made our way through a few hundred yards of swamp land. Pretty soon we were knee deep in muddy water.

On our right was a main road that was choked with abandoned cars. The road curved around in front of us and elevated up on to a bridge that passed over the swamp.

We approached the bridge cautiously and walked underneath it. On the other side of the bridge was the road that circumnavigated the boundary of the airport. And just on the other side of this road was the perimeter fence.

All along the fence were temporary machine gun bunkers made up of portable concrete barriers and sandbags. Each bunker contained at least two heavy duty machine guns.

But these were all abandoned. Every last one of them.

And all around the bunkers were empty bullet shells and dried blood. Lots of dried blood.

On the other side of the fence, directly in front of us was a small rectangular building. According to the sign on its wall, it was the home of ‘Scenic Sydney Helicopter Tours’. And behind that building was an enormous parking lot that was either for rental cars, or maybe long term parking.

Beyond the parking lot were the runways and airport terminals. The runways spanned in all directions. It was a huge, flat, wide open space. But strangely there was no movement. There were no jets, no choppers, no tanks and no Humvees. There weren’t even any helicopters at the scenic tour place. There was nothing.

“What do you think?” I asked Daniel.

“I think it’s abandoned. I think they’ve bugged out.”

“Maybe they’re all hiding?” I suggested.

“It’s possible. But why would they leave these guns here. Why are there no jets? No choppers. Nothing.”

Daniel looked through the scope on his rifle up at the air traffic control tower.

“See anything?” I asked

“Nothing. It’s a ghost town in there.”

“So what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should get the others and check it out. It looks pretty empty. Maybe we can hide out here for a few days. Maybe we can find some more supplies. Stuff they left behind like ammo and food. Maybe another Humvee.”

“Maybe a chopper,” I said hopefully.

“Yeah, maybe. Although I’m guessing if they retreated they would’ve taken every available bird they had.”

“But if we find one, maybe a civilian one, would you be able to fly us out?”

“If there’s any sort of aircraft, and I mean any sort, I’ll be flying us out right away.”

“Even a hot air balloon?”

“Well, that would be painfully slow but yes, even a hot air balloon.”

Daniel’s confidence brought a smile to my face. It was good to know that even when his back was up against the wall he would keep fighting to the very end. He had lost so much on this mission. He was the last man standing from his team. He was stranded. Surrounded. On the run.

But he would never give up. He reached across then and held my hand. He didn’t say anything though. He didn’t need to. When he squeezed my hand it said everything that he couldn’t. I squeezed his hand back as we stared at the huge expanse of Sydney Airport.