The next thing I know I feel like I’m standing up and hugging a wall that is made out of shag carpet. But in reality, I’m lying on the back seat of a car. Maria is driving at top speed. It’s dark outside. I look up at her, but I can’t focus my eyes.

She slams on the brakes and I fly off the back seat.

When I finally get my bearings, I realize I’m lying on my side, on the floor of the car. Maria looks over her shoulder, out the rear windshield, and then down at me.

“I’m so sorry, Rebecca,” she says for the millionth time. “But I think we lost them.”

“Huh? Lost them?”

“Yeah. The nano-swarms. I think we lost them.”

My mind is still a mess of haze and fog and black smoke. I touch my forehead. It’s wet with blood. Before I can put it all together, I hear the thundering noise of helicopter blades.

“Oh no,” Maria whispers.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know. But we need to hide. Come on, let’s go.”

“Hide? Hide where?”

I sit up and slide out of the car. It’s a Humvee. Maria must’ve taken one from Daniel’s camp. I realize that Maria has driven us into a small country town. I can’t really see much in the dark, but it appears to be a one street, one horse town. The nose of the Humvee was actually quite close to smashing into the brick wall of a massive warehouse.

I try and stand but I sway and fall to my knees.

We could hear other noises now. Engines. The squeaking tracks of heavily armored tanks.

It sounded like a fairly large force was descending on to this town.

But why?

Were they here for us?

Or something else?

“We need to go,” Maria says.

I try and stand but I can’t.

Maria yells at me. Orders me to my feet.

The chopper and the tanks are getting closer.

“In here,” Maria says as the noise of the rotor blades grows louder.

The building we had almost crashed into was a storage shed. We make our way up to the second floor and position ourselves in front of the windows that look out into the main street. From here we can see everything. Humvees, tanks and other heavily armored vehicles that I don’t recognize drive into the main street. Each vehicle is equipped with a satellite dish.

“EMP generators,” I whisper.

The vehicles shine their floodlights on to one of the stores in the main street. The lights practically illuminate the whole town.

I look closer. They have surrounded the post office.

“Do you think they will see our Humvee?” I ask.

“I don’t think they’re here for us,” Maria answers.

A few seconds later, a helicopter lands in the main street. A squad of soldiers is deployed. They are dressed in hazmat suits. They look like heartless, soulless, killer robots. They surround the post office.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask.

Maria shakes her head.

One of the soldiers gives a signal. Something is thrown into the post office. A split second later, there is a bright flash and a loud bang.

The soldiers move into the post office.

These guys are good. They are disciplined and coordinated. Each move is executed like clockwork.

Less than a minute later, they re-emerge from the post office. Two of the soldiers are carrying a person out by their arms.

They drop the person on their knees in the middle of the street.

The person has a black hood over their head.

One of the soldiers sticks a needle into the person’s neck.

A soldier from somewhere in the town yells, “Clear!”

A few seconds later, the person in the black hood passes out. They must’ve been injected with a sedative.

After the person passes out, someone steps out of the chopper. They are also wearing a hazmat suit. They kneel over the person wearing the hood.

Through a loud speaker we hear, “The town is secure.”

The person then takes off their Hazmat helmet. And the breath is crushed from my lungs.

It was Kim.

I had to use all my energy and concentration and focus not to yell out. I had to put my hands over my mouth.

Kim.

“What the hell is going on?” Maria whispers.

Kim removes the person’s hood. But we can’t see who it is because she is blocking our view. I think she nods her head.

Two soldiers move forward.

Kim then stands and moves away from their prisoner.

And now we can see.

We can see that the prisoner is Jack.

This time Maria actually jumps up. She is seconds away from doing something incredibly stupid and dangerous.

I hold her back. Pull her down. I wrestle her to the floor.

The soldiers carry an unconscious Jack into the back of the chopper.

As this happens an older man steps forward and stands next to Kim. This man only has one hand.

Doctor Hunter.

He puts his good arm around Kim and hugs her.

He then moves into the cabin of the chopper. The rotor blades begin to spin faster and faster. The noise of the turbines increase.

Kim turns and heads for the chopper as well. She is about to board. She stops and looks around. She looks back down the street in our direction. She looks up at us. She looks right at us.

“Kim,” I whisper. “What happened to you?”

The other vehicles, the Humvees, the tanks. All of them leave the town, creating a dust storm in their wake.

“She can’t see us, can she?” Maria whispers to me.

“No. There’s no way. We’re hidden. We’re too far away.”

Kim turns her back on us. She puts her Hazmat helmet back on. She boards the chopper and the door slides shut.

The helicopter takes off slowly, rising vertically. It then banks and disappears into the night. The sound of the rotor blades gradually fade.

Once I know we are alone, I let Maria go.

“We were so close,” she says. “We had almost caught up to him.”

A tear streaks down Maria’s face.

“Where are they taking him?” she asks. “What happened to Kim? What is she doing?”

“I don’t know. I...”

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t answer Maria. I had no idea what was going on.

The only thing I knew for certain is that Maria would not stop. There was no turning back. Not now. We were in too deep.

“Where do you think they are taking him?” she asks again, more forcefully.

I tell her that they are probably taking him to the Fortress for testing. This is where we will find him. This is where we will find Kenji. And Kim.

Everything is going to be fine.

“Maybe we should get Daniel?” I say. “We need him. We can’t do this alone.”

Maria says no. She tells me he was acting crazy. He was destroying computers, stabbing them with his knife. Shooting the monitors. He had this wild look in his eyes. He kept asking for his meds. He was talking to himself, talking to someone else. And when he wasn’t talking to himself, or destroying the computers, he was doubled over, throwing his guts up.

“He was scaring me,” Maria says. “He was acting crazy. He was dangerous. The look in his eyes. The way he was holding the knife. I had to get us out of there. I had to. I didn’t know what else to do. I’m so sorry, Rebecca.”

We raid the town for supplies and make sure we have plenty of water and canned food. I make a quick stop in the pharmacy and grab as much gauze and bandages as I can stuff into my backpack. I wrap my head up nice and tight. I hope the wound closes over soon. I can’t afford to lose any more blood. I’m feeling lightheaded enough already.

We spend the night in the Humvee.

We drive at first light.

We follow the tracks left by the tanks. We don’t know where they will lead us.

We decide that when we run out of fuel, we will walk.

I still wasn’t feeling the best. My headache was getting worse. The bleeding had stopped but I was still having trouble with my vision.

I was sleeping on the back seat of the Humvee when we ran out of fuel.

“We have to keep going,” Maria says.

But I can’t move. I’m paralysed with fear.

We need to do so much. We need to go so very far.

No Kenji. No Daniel. No Jack.

We are on our own.

In the desert.

Surrounded by the infected and monsters and rogue nano-swarms.

We are outnumbered, overwhelmed. We are screwed.

“Come on, Rebecca. We need to keep moving. We can’t stay here.”

Maria is beautiful. She is kind. She is one of the greatest friends I have ever known. It hurts me to even think that in a couple of days’ time or maybe even less, she will be dead. There’s no way we can survive out here.

No way.

I finally pull myself up off the back seat of the Humvee. I step out on to the warm bitumen road.

We start walking. We have no idea where we are going. No idea what’s in front. No idea what’s behind.

The only thing we know for certain is that we are going to find Jack. And then we’re going to get Kim. And Kenji. Or die trying.

It is at the same time an act of bravery, stupidity, and love.

I tell Maria I am scared.

She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t comfort me. She is scared as well.

***

End of Book 3