We all backed away.

Except for the stranger. He stood up and walked over to the body. It was then we could see how big this guy was. He was huge. A mountain of a man. He was at least seven foot tall. Arms like a prize winning bodybuilder. Shoulders so wide he looked as if he’d have to walk sideways through most doors.

I could see why the priest had to shoot him with a shotgun to get him to cooperate. And why the blast from the shotgun seemed to have only left minor injuries.

I wondered if Kenji or Daniel would be able to stop him if he decided to turn violent against us. I had a feeling that we’d be helpless, even if we all jumped on him at the same time.

The stranger knelt down beside the body of the woman. Even when he knelt down, he was still as tall as me.

“Oh man,” Jack said. “I think that’s the woman from earlier.”

The stranger had his head lowered. He then closed the woman’s eyes.

“Did you know her?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Wait. Were you part of her scavenger team or whatever? Do you know about the Fortress?”

We were all silent, waiting for an answer. But he continued to kneel over the woman, his head lowered, like he was saying a prayer.

After a while, Maria spoke up. “What the hell? Why are they keeping her down here?”

“Yeah, why can’t they leave her outside?” Jack said. “Or even better, why can’t they bury her?”

I was starting to feel more and more uneasy. Maybe we should’ve made a stand against these people instead of laying down our weapons. Maybe Jack was right after all.

I noticed the stranger had a smile on his lips. “Why are you smiling? You think this is funny?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“What? Why?”

“Whenever we left the safety of the Fortress she would always say, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this scavenger hunt’. But we always made it back. Sure, we had some close calls. But nothing bad ever went down. Well, not until today. Funny thing was, she didn’t say it this time. I made fun of her, told her she had jinxed the group.”

“So you were part of her scavenger team?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“So that means you know about the Fortress?” Daniel asked.

He stood up and eyed Daniel suspiciously. “How do you people know about that?”

“We found her earlier,” Daniel answered. “Or rather, she found us. She had been bitten.”

He nodded. “Doesn’t surprise me. We were in pretty deep when we got separated.”

“She told us what had happened. She told us about the Fortress and that it was the only safe place left. And that we would never find it.”

“That about sums it up.”

“Why?” Kenji asked. “Why would we never find it?”

“It’s hidden. It was designed never to be found.”

“So how did you find it?”

“I got lucky.”

“What do you mean? You just stumbled across it?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

“What the hell were you doing out in the desert anyway?”

“I grew up out here. Spent most of my younger years working as a drover.”

“Drover?” Kenji asked.

“Yeah, you know, herding cattle. I worked out on the bigger properties. The ones out in the middle of nowhere, bigger than some European countries. But that was a long time ago.”

“So you came out here to get away from the virus and the infected?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah. I was in Melbourne when the virus first appeared. I was stupid enough to stay there right up until they started dropping the firebombs. But when things got real bad, when they started herding people like cattle, killing people like cattle, I got the hell out.”

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“Is it true?” Kenji asked. “Did they really drop a nuclear bomb on Melbourne?”

“I don’t know. I got out before that happened. Wouldn’t be talking to you right now if I didn’t.”

He had a good point.

“So, you’ve just been wandering around out here all by yourself?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“How the hell have you survived out here on your own?”

“Like I said, I grew up out here. But I’m not gonna lie, this is a hard place. Hard to find food, even harder to find water. But that’s why it’s the perfect place to hide. It’s kind of a double edged sword. I was struggling, but I was doing OK. Until the dust storm hit a couple of weeks ago. That’s when things started to get real interesting.”

“Interesting?”

“Yeah. Let’s just say, the infected ain’t the only things that go bump in the night. Not anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.

He looked at Daniel, at all of us. He smiled again. A smug little smirk. “You know what I mean. You’ve already seen it. The dust storm. It changed things. For worse.”

It was like he could read our minds. He knew we had seen it. He knew we wouldn’t have made it this far, stayed alive for this long without seeing it.

The thing in the middle of Sydney.

The spider monster made from scrap metal and spare car parts.

The bones in the mine pit.

It’s not just the infected anymore. The Oz virus was just the beginning. There’s something else going on.

“If I didn’t make it to the Fortress,” he continued. “I wouldn’t be breathing right now.”

“Wait a minute,” Jack said. “If the Fortress can’t be found, how the hell did you find it?”

“I didn’t. I was hiding in a one street, one horse town. It had been evacuated early on. I was hiding in the local post office. Waiting for the dust storm to blow over. Ended up waiting two weeks. I was starving and dying of thirst when they found me.”

“The infected found you?”

“No. It was a recon team.”

“A recon team?” Kenji asked. “Out here?”

“Yeah. The Fortress is their base of operations. They had been tracking and monitoring some activity in this area. ‘Anomalies’, is the word they use to describe them. The recon team had been out on patrol when they found me and took me in. Initially, I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was delirious from dehydration. I thought I was hallucinating.”

“Wow, that’s lucky,” Kenji said.

“Yeah. If I’d spent any more time in that town, I would’ve died.”

“From dehydration?”

“No. The recon team had tracked something big to the area. They said it was a miracle it hadn’t found me.”

“What was their target?” Daniel asked. “What were they tracking?”

He shrugged his massive shoulders. “All I know is they call them ‘anomalies’. Something to do with the dust storm that hit. Judging by the way they were acting, I’d say it was something big, bad and scary.”

“What the hell does the dust storm have to do with anything?” Maria asked.

“The dust storm was man-made. And now because of that, the outback is no safer than the cities and the towns.”

“A man-made dust storm?” I asked. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah,” I answered even though I wasn’t sure.

I mean, the dust storm was huge. It covered the entire eastern seaboard of Australia and stretched way out west into the outback. Daniel had told me that there had never been one like it before. Ever. That’s why it was initially thought to be nuclear fallout or some sort of nuclear winter.

But it wasn’t.

It was something else.

“So the recon team took you back to the Fortress?” Daniel continued.

“Yeah. They were convinced I was contaminated or something. They couldn’t believe I was still breathing. They locked me up in quarantine for a few days. But they eventually gave me the all clear and let me out.”

“And then you joined one of the scavenger teams?”

He nodded. “Met with General Spears. He told me that in order to stay, I had to earn my keep.”

“General Spears?” Kenji said. “He was in charge of operations in Woomera.”

“That’s right. He is the boss man. I told him I didn’t have a problem with earning my keep. Told him I’d be happy to do it. I got in his good books. Joined up with a few other people local to this area. We knew the towns, knew the terrain. As a result, we were the best scavenger team the General had at his disposal. So we were afforded certain luxuries.”

“Like what?” Kenji asked.

“Extra food. Booze if we wanted. We got to keep any money or anything valuable we found. Not that there was any point to keeping that stuff.”

“How many scavenger teams were there?”

“Not sure. We were all kept in different sections, isolated from each other. Just in case there was an outbreak.”

“What did you scavenge for?”

“Anything and everything. Food and water. Fuel. We’d usually leave just before sunrise. Make sure we were back before sunset. We’d been out most days for the past month. We had some close calls but like I said, nothing bad ever went down. Until today.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“I guess our number was up. We found a town. It appeared to be empty. She vouched for it,” he said, motioning towards the dead woman. “She said it had been evacuated early on. And from our vantage point, it looked to be deserted. But it wasn’t. They came outta nowhere. The buildings, the storm water drains. In a matter of minutes, we were completely surrounded. Everyone freaked. Complete panic. Complete chaos. We were separated.”

My heart was beating loud as the stranger told his story. It was all too familiar.

“I just hope she had the guts to end it quick,” he added.

“She did,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Good for her.”

“So what now?” Jack asked. “Are you going back to the Fortress?”

“Not sure. I’m starting to think I’m better off on my own.”

“You can’t be serious,” I said. “You nearly died on your own.”

He nodded slowly. “I’m aware of that.”

“Why?” Maria asked. “Why would you want to be alone?”

“These people,” he said. “And the people at the Fortress, they won’t last long.”

“Why not?”

“It’s only a matter of time. There’s barely any food out here. Barely any water. This place becomes more and more dangerous with each passing day. These people will probably end up killing each other first.”

“Not everyone is evil,” I said. “Not everyone will forsake who they are just to survive.”

“Believe me,” he said. “We’re all gonna die out here.”

“These people are just scared,” I continued, trying to convince myself more than anyone else. “They’re just being careful. We’re on the same side.”

“Maybe I wasn’t clear before,” the stranger said. “But it’s like this folks. When the virus first hit, people lost. They lost big. They lost everything. You’re right about these people being scared. They are scared out of their minds. Fear is what motivates them. That is why they hit you. That is why none of us are getting out of this town alive.”

I was shaking my head as the stranger spoke. I did not want to believe him.

“There will come a time,” he said. “When your survival, and your friend’s survival, will make you do things you never thought you were capable of.”