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he didn’t hang me up in
the mess hall for everyone to see, that he didn’t put my head on a
stick for everyone to see. So yeah, I guess I’m one of the lucky
ones. But I’ll make it up to him. You’ll see. I’ll make it up to
him. I’m strong. I’m loyal. I am a soldier. I served in the Middle
East. I never asked questions. Not even up in those Afghan
mountains. Not when the shit hit the fan. Not after the first
outbreak. Not when we lost control at Woomera. I have served until
the very end. And this is how they treat me?”
    He began pacing back and forth in front of
us.
    We were on our knees in the desert. Alone in
the desert. The tank tracks had disappeared. But they had led us to
a mad soldier. Someone who had been banished from his team. His
words, his movements were wild. His eyes were wild.
    He was heavily armed. It looked like he was
prepared to last a few days on his own. Maybe a week.
    “ Please don’t hurt us,” I said. “We
came here looking for help. We came here to find
someone.”
    “ We all came here to find someone,”
he answered. “We are all looking for someone. Searching. And my
search is over. I have been rewarded. I found you. Maria Marsh. The
one. The only. You’re a goddess, you know that? You’re an angel.
The savior. I’m certain some of the guys fell in love with you the
moment they saw your photo. How could they not? You represented
everything that is good with the world, everything that is worth
fighting for. You represented hope and innocence to these men.
These men who are not innocent and never will be. You were
something worth saving because you could save us. Do you see? That
is why you’re an angel. That is why you’re a goddess. And now the
General will have to let me back in. Now that I have
you.”
    “ How?” I asked. “How do we get in?
Where is this place?”
    “ It is far. It is big,” he said as
he looked up to the desert sky again. “We need to contact him. Get
his attention. He is always watching. He sees all. But first, we
need to hide you. We need you out of harm’s way. It is too
dangerous out here.”
    He bent down and picked up a chain that was
hidden in the dust. The chain was attached to a trapdoor. There was
a keypad on the door. He punched in a code and opened it up. A
ladder led straight down into darkness.
    We must’ve come across another outpost, I
thought. Or a bunker or something. Maybe this is where he was
getting his supplies from. Food and water and ammo. There must be
hundreds of these bunkers hidden all over the desert.
    “ Where are you taking her?” I
asked.
    He ignored me and retrieved a black hood and
two plastic zip ties from one of his pockets on his vest. He tied
my hands together and then tied Maria’s hands together in front of
her body and slipped the black hood over her head.
    “ Go,” he said to Maria. “Start
climbing. You stop, I shoot. And then you’ll get to the bottom real
fast. You catch my meaning?”
    Shoot? He was just talking about how she was a
goddess? “You won’t shoot her,” I said, trying to call his bluff.
“You need her. We all need her.”
    “ Doc never said nothing about
getting her alive. But I don’t feel like carrying you all the way
back. We got a long way to go. Especially now the trains are
out.”
    “ I can’t see!” Maria said. “How do
you expect me to climb?”
    “ You don’t need to see where you’re
going. Just hold on real tight. You just need to climb straight
down. It’s a piece of cake. Now, if you fall, you will fall to your
death. It is a long way straight down. A long way. So you better
hold on tight. When you reach the bottom. You wait. You stay quiet.
Like a good girl. The door is locked. Can’t open it from the
inside. You should be safe. But you stay quiet just to be sure. You
never know what is lurking in those tunnels.”
    He helped Maria onto the ladder. She began
climbing.
    “ Maria, be strong.” I
said.
    “ It’s going to be OK,” she
answered.
    She