For a second I forgot about the rapidly approaching infected monsters. My only concern was for Maria.

I crouched down beside her and checked for a bullet wound. Checked for blood.

Nothing.

She was wearing the NBC suit. It had protected her, like it had protected me once before. She sat up, gasping for air, trying to breathe but unable to. I knew the feeling all too well.

She couldn’t breathe or speak, but she pointed back over my shoulder.

The infected were coming in fast.

I turned, raised my rifle and opened fire. Unfortunately my aim was erratic. Before I knew what was happening, I had emptied an entire magazine. All thirty bullets gone in the blink of an eye. I had taken out a few. But there were more coming.

I drew my sidearm, kept firing. Not much difference.

Luckily, Daniel was a better shot than me. He arrived on the scene a few seconds later to help out. He even had time to place Jack carefully on the ground. He then raised his rifle and calmly and methodically took out the remaining infected.

I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if he wasn’t there to help.

Would I have had time to reload?

Would Kenji have done what he was actually supposed to do and cover us?

I couldn’t believe that Kenji had missed so badly and accidentally hit Maria. Someone as good as Kenji doesn’t miss like that.

I helped Maria to her feet.

Daniel carried Jack. “Come on. There’s bound to be more,” he said as he checked his watch again. “Five minutes.”

I helped Maria to her feet and put my arm around her to help her walk. This time she didn’t brush my arm away. She needed help. And we didn’t have time for anyone to lag behind.

I was starting to feel like we weren’t going to make it. I looked up at the nearest gun tower. I tried to spot Kenji but I couldn’t see him. Where the hell was he?

This was not like Kenji at all.

Missing his target and accidentally hitting Maria?

There’s no way.

Maybe if he was drunk.

And blind folded.

Kenji had proven to be a rock for us, for me, time and time again. I don’t know what had happened, but I was determined to find out.

About a minute later, we finally made it back to the garage. We put Jack in the rear of the remaining Humvee. This would be our getaway car. I hoped it worked. I hoped it was supercharged or something.

“Kenji! It’s time to go!” Daniel shouted into his walkie-talkie.

But just as before, there was no response.

“It’s no use,” I said. “It’s busted. We gotta go get him.”

Daniel swore and threw the radio into the Humvee. “Rebecca you’re with me. Maria, stay here. We’ve got three minutes.”

Maria wasn’t really paying attention to Daniel. She was too concerned with Jack. She was holding his face, checking his pulse, picking glass out of his hair.

Daniel put the key in the ignition and turned the engine on. “Good. It’s got a full tank. Maria, if we’re not back in one minute you need to go without us. Do not wait.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

That got her attention. “What? Are you crazy? I’m not leaving without you guys.”

“This place is set to blow. If we’re not back in time you have to leave, drive as fast as you can. Get away from here. Do you understand?”

“Just hurry,” she said.

Daniel left the engine idling so it would be ready for us when we got back. Or ready for Maria to drive.

We sprinted over to the research compound. “We’ve got two minutes,” Daniel said. “Keep a look out for infected. There could be more.”

As we made our way to the garage, Daniel loaded the grenade launcher attached to his rifle. “Get behind me.”

He took aim, raising the barrel slightly and fired.

The grenade was lobbed in a high arc and detonated right on target, exploding right up against the roller door of the garage, tearing a hole big enough for us to duck through.

We ran through the garage and up the stairs.

“One minute, forty-five seconds,” Daniel said.

“He better be ready,” I said as my mind was still trying to figure out what the hell had happened.

Maybe he was just tired, I thought. That’s why he missed, right? He was dehydrated. Starving. Surely that would mess with your concentration and your aim.

Daniel entered the mess hall with his rifle up to his shoulder raised and ready. “Kenji!” he shouted.

No response.

“Tariq!”

No response. Nothing. Dead silence.

Tariq should’ve been in the communications room. But he wasn’t. Kenji should’ve been ready to go. But he was nowhere to be seen.

Something was indeed wrong. Something had happened. Something was messed up.

The smell of burnt flesh filled the room.

Daniel picked up the blow torch that the last surviving soldier was going to use to cauterize his wound. “This is hot.”

“Huh?”

“Someone has used this,” he said. “Very, very recently.”

“Who,” I asked as I turned around in a slow circle, looking for the guys. I looked at the tables of the mess hall. “Hey, where’s Ben?”

Blood stained the table he’d been lying on. The big man was gone.

Daniel checked his watch. “This is bad. This is so freakin bad. One minute, thirty seconds.”

“Where the hell did they go?” I asked.

There was genuine fear and panic in my voice. My heart was beating loud and fast. There were too many damn questions. Not enough time.

Daniel double checked the communications room. “Yep. Tariq is definitely gone.”

The computer monitors all showed an aerial shot of the outpost. The images were streaming live from the surveillance drone.

Daniel’s watched beeped. “One minute, twenty seconds.”

“Where are they?” I asked. “Where is Kenji?”

We quickly looked outside, checking the walkways that connected the gun towers.

“Kenji!” I yelled.

No response.

Daniel’s watch beeped again. “One minute, ten seconds.”

“He’s ... he’s gone,” I said.

“Look, we gotta go,” Daniel said. “Kenji can take care of himself. So can Ben. We have to assume they’ve already left. Maybe they got scared. Left without us. Maybe they assumed we could get to safety easy enough. They probably escaped back through the rabbit hole. That’s what I would’ve done.”

“We have to find them.”

“We don’t have time!” he said as his watch beeped. “We have approximately one minute before this place blows.”

I was shaking my head. I couldn’t leave without Kenji. I couldn’t.

Where the hell did they go?

No Kenji. No Ben. No Tariq. Too many damn questions.

Kenji can take care of himself, I thought.

“Kenji can take care of himself,” I said out loud, trying to convince myself. “He’s smart, he’s strong.”

Daniel pushed me out of the room and down the stairs. We ran out of the garage, across to the military side of the compound.

Maria was just about to climb into the driver’s seat and take off. “Oh thank God!” she yelled. “I thought you weren’t going to make it. I was about to drive off. Where’s Kenji? Where is everyone?”

“We don’t know,” I answered as we jumped in the Humvee.

“What? What the hell do you mean?”

“They’re gone,” I said. “They must’ve left back through the rabbit hole.”

“Buckle up for safety,” Daniel said. “This is gonna be a bumpy ride.”

He floored the Humvee and we took off into the desert. He was right, the ride was definitely bumpy. The Humvee got airborne multiple times before Daniel finally found a dirt track.

His watch beeped. He glanced at it. “Thirty seconds.”

I looked out the rear windshield. The outpost shrunk away in the distance. I couldn’t help but feel we had just left Kenji to die.

“So where are the others?” Maria asked. “Are you sure they made it out?”

Jack was lying unconscious on the back seat.

“We don’t know,” I said.

“Excuse me?”

“They must’ve left already. Maybe they thought we were cutting it too close.”

“They can take care of themselves,” Daniel added. “Especially Ben. He had obviously woken up. There’s no way they carried him out of that room.”

Beep.

“Twenty seconds.”

Daniel had a good point about Ben being too heavy to move. I guess that meant he had woken up. Maybe he was the one who told them to get out. Maybe he knew something we didn’t. Like whether or not the self-destruct explosives were nuclear.

“Ten seconds,” Daniel said. “Guys, don’t look. If it’s nuclear, the flash will blind you. Close your eyes.”

I closed my eyes and buried my face in my hands, hoping that we had done the right thing, hoping that Kenji was all right, that he had gotten out in time and that he had made it to a safe distance.

Daniel floored the accelerator. The engine of the Humvee responded and we continued to pick up speed as we made our escape into the desert.

Behind us, the outpost erupted in a huge fireball.

As the shockwave buffeted the car, I convinced myself that Kenji had made it out. I convinced myself that he was alive, that he was most definitely not vaporized into ash.

I had convinced myself that Kenji was indestructible.

Even though deep down, I knew better.