The Humvee was smashed up and completely covered in black dust. As was the surrounding area. The windows were all smashed in as well. There was glass everywhere.

Inside, Maria was curled up in the back. Jack was strapped into the driver’s seat, hanging upside down. Thank God he buckled up, I thought.

They were both unconscious.

“Come on, let’s get them out,” Daniel said.

I crawled into the rear of the Humvee, and shook Maria gently by the shoulders. I was too scared to think the worst.

No response.

I shook her more forcefully. “Maria!”

She opened her eyes slightly and blinked a couple of times. Then she started coughing uncontrollably. A few seconds later she threw up a pile of black goo.

“Maria, are you all right?”

“Jack,” she whispered to me.

“He’s right here,” I said as I looked up at the driver’s seat. Daniel was checking Jack’s pulse as I was reassuring Maria.

There were a few tense seconds before finally, Daniel nodded, indicating that Jack was alive.

“He’s fine,” I said to Maria.

She relaxed slightly. “I feel like I’ve been beaten up,” she said. “And cut up. My skin, it hurts like hell. I can’t really see that well either.” Her voice was so hoarse, she sounded like a completely different person.

“It’s going to be OK,” I said, even though I really had no idea of the medical ramifications of a nano-swarm attack. Was there permanent damage, or long term side-effects? Now that I thought about it, I still felt like crap from when I charged right into the middle of the swarm back in Hope. My muscles still ached. My throat was still sore.

I brushed Maria’s hair out of her face so I could check her eyes. They looked glassy and red. She looked like she had the world’s worst hangover. “Maria, that was possibly the dumbest, bravest, most stupidest thing you have ever done.”

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“Is Jack all right?” she asked.

Daniel unbuckled Jack from his seat and slid him out of the driver’s side door. Jack was still unconscious. “Come on,” Daniel said to me. “We need to get back inside before the infected find us.”

“Is Jack all right!?” Maria asked again.

“He’s fine,” I said, trying to calm her down. “He’s unconscious. But his pulse is steady. He’s fine.”

“We have to get back inside. Get to a car, get out of here.” Daniel said as he checked his watch. “We have six minutes before it blows.”

I was initially helping Maria, but then she brushed me off. I guess she was still angry that we had let Jack risk his life like that.

“Be on the lookout for any more infected,” Daniel said as he picked up Jack and carried him over his shoulders like a fireman.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I said.

The problem was, as we made our way back to the research building, we had the sun in our eyes. A giant orange fireball of a sun. This made the simple task of watching for the infected nearly impossible.

We knew there would be more coming for us, but we couldn’t see them. We could hear them however. Off in the distance. Right on cue, I thought.

I reached for my walkie-talkie so I could communicate with Kenji, but it was gone. I moved over to Daniel and slid his walkie-talkie out of his pocket. “Kenji, where are you? What’s happening?”

No response.

“Kenji, come in. We can hear them, the infected. But we can’t see them. Can you cover us?”

Static and silence.

“Let’s head back to the garage on the military side,” Daniel said.

As we made our move, a brisk walk turned into a jog. Then the jog turned into a run. The howling moan, the screams of the infected became louder. Closer.

Pretty soon we were sprinting. Or rather, sprinting as fast as we could. It felt like we were flying, but with Daniel carrying Jack, and Maria still woozy, we probably weren’t going that fast.

I tried the walkie-talkie one more time. “Tariq? Are you there?”

Silence.

“Maybe the EMP killed the radio?” Daniel said.

“Or maybe something has happened to them,” Maria added.

“Don’t say that.”

I was about to check the radio to make sure it wasn’t broken. But suddenly Maria tripped over. She skidded on to her knees and hands. She tried to get up, but as soon as she got to her feet, she began to sway.

I managed to catch her before she fell. “I’ve got you. It’s gonna be all right. We can make it.”

Maria shook her head. “I’m not so sure,” she said as she pointed towards the outpost. “We’ve got company.”

I looked up. I could just make out another group of infected to our right, running around the research compound. I yelled out to Kenji to take them out.

There was no response.

I put my hand up to shield my eyes from the setting sun. I could just see Kenji’s silhouette. He had moved up to the nearest gun tower. He was taking forever to open fire.

“Hurry!” I shouted.

The next thing I knew, Maria was pushed backwards, out of my arms. I heard a single gunshot. The noise echoed out into the desert.

Maria was lying flat on her back, clutching at her chest. She was gasping for air, wincing in pain. She couldn’t breathe.

It took me a few seconds to realize that Maria had been shot.

I looked back up at the gun tower. The shadow, the silhouette was gone.