We trekked about thirty miles. Maybe more. We followed a small road for a while. But then, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we turned off the road and followed a dirt track for another few miles.

I wondered how Ben knew where we were going. He didn’t have a map. No GPS. No compass. And now we weren’t even following a road. We were literally walking off into the desert. A huge, never-ending desert. We were far away from any roads or dirt tracks. Our lives were in Ben’s hands.

The reality? Ben could’ve been leading us out into the desert to our deaths. He could’ve been leading us all the way out here just to butcher us. Or make us dig our own graves and bury us alive.

I shook my head. I had to stop thinking like that.

Up ahead, there appeared to be an ancient river bed. Ben said it would lead us to the outpost.

We walked in silence. We were all exhausted. Everyone lost in their own thoughts.

Were we doing the right thing?

Could we trust Ben?

Each step took us further away from our destination, from safety.

Ben was out in front. I had been so lost in my own thoughts, scaring myself with my own crazy imagination, I hadn’t even noticed that Ben was hunched over as he walked, breathing hard, blood dripping down his shirt.

I walked up next to him. “Hey, are you all right?”

He stopped, ignoring my question and held his hand up for everyone to stop. “We’re here.”

The river bed sloped downwards between a pile of massive boulders. I’m guessing these rocks would’ve caused rapids in the river once. Or maybe even a waterfall in some places. A very long time ago.

Below us was a vast plain.

Kenji and Daniel moved ahead slightly and climbed over the rocks so they could get a look.

“Well, the good news is that we’re finally here,” Kenji said.

“What’s the bad news?” I asked.

I looked at Daniel. He was shaking his head, a look of disappointment on his face.

“Well? What’s the bad news?” I asked as I scrambled forward over the rocks so I could have a look.

“It’s completely surrounded by the infected,” Kenji answered.

“Oh no,” Maria said. “How? All the way out here? There’s no towns? There’s nothing. Where did they come from?”

The outpost had two main buildings. They were rectangular in shape. They were connected by an enclosed walkway about fifty feet in length. This walkway appeared to be damaged. It seemed to be bent slightly, almost as if it had been damaged by an earthquake.

Each building was protected by two twenty foot chain link fences, topped with razor wire, and a twenty foot inner wall. The buildings were also protected by gun towers, one at each corner. Placed around the outer-perimeter fences were three Humvees and one tank. They were spaced evenly apart, facing outwards, towards the desert. Each vehicle had a satellite dish attached to its roof.

One thing was obvious; this was a maximum security facility. It was designed to keep any unauthorized personnel on the outside.

And at that moment, the infected had it completely surrounded. They had even knocked over the perimeter fences in certain areas.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Military research,” Ben said. “Standard design. You’ve got a research facility and a military facility. They keep them in separate buildings just in case there’s an outbreak or any contamination issues.”

“Outbreak?”

“Yeah. In the research facility, they’re working with everything from the Oz virus, to the Ebola virus. Swine flu. Bird flu. SARS. Small pox. Everything. They need to keep that part separated.”

I could see his point.

Maria looked worried. “Where did they all come from?”

“We’re in the Woomera military testing zone,” Kenji whispered.

“What? We’re nowhere near Woomera,” Jack said. “If we were, we wouldn’t be breathing on account of all the nuclear fallout.”

“The testing zone,” Kenji continued. “It was a huge area. It stretched out across half the outback. It was top secret.”

“So?”

“They had multiple testing sites within the area. They tested on refugees, illegal immigrants, people smugglers. They had secret, hidden refugee camps out here. I’m not sure how many. I only saw one of them.”

“Secret refugee camps?” Ben asked. “Out here?”

“Yeah. It was awful. It was basically a huge shanty town. A huge slum. Home to thousands of refugees. I guess they used them like farms. The refugees were like cattle.”

Maria moved away from us. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“And so now the refugees, they’re all infected?” I said.

Kenji nodded. “I’m guessing these outposts and the Fortress are all part of it somehow.”

“There are at least six of these outposts that I know of,” Ben said. “The Fortress is the main, central facility.”

“So what the hell do we do now?” Jack said, the strain of fear returning to his voice. “We’re stuck. No water. In the middle of nowhere. Three days walk from the Fortress. From anywhere!”

“I was hoping somebody was still home,” Ben said. “Looks like that was just wishful thinking.”

“What good would that have done us anyway?” Jack asked.

“They have a pretty devastating security system. Very effective. All they have to do is push a button and watch the show. The fact that all those infected people are still standing means that nobody has activated the security system.”

“So nobody’s home?” I said.

“Or the security system is busted,” Kenji offered. “Or they’re dead.”

Ben nodded. “Yeah.”

“So what now?” I asked.

“Well, it looks like most of the perimeter fence is still intact,” Ben continued. “Which means the infected are still all on the outside.”

I didn’t see how that helped us. “How does that help us?”

“It means if we can get in, we can get supplies. Food. Water. We can rest up knowing we’re safe. We should be able to activate the security system. Clear out the infected.”

“But there’s too many of them,” Maria said. “There’s no way we can get past. We certainly can’t fight our way through. We only have one little handgun and one shotgun. How are we going to get in?”

“Emergency entry point,” Ben answered. “But we need to hurry. There’s no telling how long that fence will hold.”