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two soldiers on camera physically slumped.

    One of them took out their sidearm. Put it to his head. The cameraman tried to stop him but it was too late.

    The red dust and the wind seemed to intensify at that point. As did the screaming howl of the infected.

    The cameraman started praying. "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." And as he said the word shadow, an actual shadow, one like before in the helicopter seemed to cover them. It turned the screen a darker color.

    "I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil."

    And then something roared. Something big.

    The roar was louder than the screaming howl of the infected. So loud, the cameraman ducked, and the last remaining soldier on screen put his hands up to cover his ears.

    Then the footage ended.

    My teeth were still chattering. I was silent, holding my breath without even realizing. "What the hell happened? What was that?"

    "We don't know."

    "Does anyone know about this?"

    "No. This is top secret. If anyone knew we had this, we'd be killed on the spot and buried out in the desert. No questions asked."

    "What are they gonna do now?"

    "From what we can gather they've put a second rescue mission on hold. They're playing the waiting game basically."

    I couldn't blame them. Not after seeing that.

    "So what happened? What happened to their helicopter?"

    "Looks like they came under fire. There's also a chance the chopper suffered an engine failure as a result of the dust storm. But we're not sure."

    "Under fire? From who?"

    "Worst case scenario; terrorist splinter cells have gotten through the blockade."

    "Terrorists? What would they want?"

    "The virus most probably, and Maria. Same thing we want, I guess."

    "Do you really think a terrorist cell could get all the way through the blockade into Sydney?"

    Daniel shook his head. "It's highly unlikely. They would need aircraft, or boats with stealth capabilities. Occam’s Razor."

    "What?"

    "The most obvious reason is usually the correct one. It was probably an engine failure. That dust storm is huge. We've recorded wind gusts of well over two hundred miles an hour."

    "Why is it so red?" I asked.

    "We're not sure. Initially we thought it was due to nuclear fallout. But that's not the case."

    "So what is it?"

    "We don't know. It could be a natural dust storm. They have happened from time to time. But nothing on this scale. And not for this length of time. The entire eastern seaboard has been covered in red dust for over a week now."

    "So, what now?" I repeated, desperately wanting to know that they weren’t just going to leave my friends for dead. "The military are going to try again, right?"

    "We don't know how long they're going to wait. It could be days it could be weeks."

    "That’s too long."

    "Yeah, I agree. Do you have any idea where your friends could be? Do you know where they would go, where they would hide if things got real bad?"

    "I can’t be certain. But when we were trying to flee the city, when we were being chased by the military and the infected our plan was to try and head west. We wanted to get out of the city, get as far away from the population centers as possible. We were going to travel west through the harbor and the river system. Our back up plan was to head further into the city. And get to another building. Get as high off the ground level as possible. Kenji told us that high ground is easier to defend."

    "I see. That’s probably why the transmission from Kenji came from the middle of the city," Daniel said, almost as if he was thinking out loud. "Locating their exact position will be hard work. We’re not sure how long it will take."

    Or even if they’re still alive, I thought to myself.

    "But we have to try," he continued. "We have no other options."

    "Wait a minute. You're going in there? After what you just saw?"

    "Yes."

    He sounded so confident, so sure of himself. But it was different to the over-confidence