I took off at a sprint. I was running as fast as I could, which in the NBC suit was pretty damn fast. The grass was coated in the red dust. It was slightly over grown but not too bad. I don’t know why I was thinking about the state of the field. Again, I think it was the adrenalin. I read somewhere that it makes you hyper sensitive, like you’re able to take in more details and process them in your brain or something. I probably should’ve been more focused on what I was doing, but I couldn’t help it.

A few seconds later, I’d run from the boundary fence into the middle of the field. Probably some sort of world record, I thought to myself. And as I was thinking about that stupid thought, I nearly ran over and stepped on Maria.

To my surprise, she was lying on her belly. It looked like she’d rolled around in the dust to completely cover and camouflage herself. It was pretty clever. I almost didn’t see her.

When she saw me, she jumped up. “Rebecca! You came! Bloody hell, I was so freakin scared. They’re everywhere in here. It’s not safe.”

We hugged and I cried. I suddenly realized how much I missed her. I mean, I missed Jack and of course I missed Kenji, but I think because we had become so close over the past year, and maybe because she was a girl, I felt like I was closer to her than I was to Jack. I guess she was my bestie. My BFF.

“What the hell are you wearing?” she asked.

I could see that she was crying. Her tears were actually turning the dust on her face into red mud.

“It’s a protective suit,” I said. “I’ll explain later.”

“Where are the others?”

“They’re still in the tunnel. They’re trying to get past the barricade, but it’s proving to be quite difficult.”

“Yeah, that steam roller thing would be pretty damn heavy. Wait, maybe we can drive it out of the way. It’ll probably still work. That’s how we got it there in the first place.”

Of course! It was so simple. We could just drive it out of the way.

But just as we were about to head back to the barricade, we heard the screaming howl of the infected.

“We better hurry,” Maria said. “Some of them are in here.”

Just then we heard rapid footsteps. Out of the dust, maybe twenty feet to my right, was an infected undead monster. Its arms outstretched, broken teeth bared and ready to bite.

For some reason, the cricket stumps were still in the ground. I guess they were about to play a match before everything went to hell.

I grabbed one of the wooden stumps, sliding it out of the ground. I’m not sure what happened next. I think I stepped in front of Maria, acting as a shield. I closed my eyes; that much I do remember. I know you’re supposed to keep your eyes on the ball, eyes on the prize, but I couldn’t help it. I guess I kind of flinched as I stabbed outwards with the pointy end of the cricket stump. The infected man ran at full sprint impaling himself. The wooden stump went straight through his mouth and out the back of his skull. As it was impaled, I sidestepped out of the way and its own body weight sent it crashing to the ground, sliding half way down the cricket pitch.

I think we were both in shock. I don’t think I’d ever killed one like that before. Certainly not up close and personal. Maybe I’d gotten lucky with a stray bullet, but this was totally different.

“Well, we’ll have to go to the third umpire, but I’d say that was a run out,” Maria said.

“What?”

“Oh, sorry. I keep forgetting you don’t know anything about cricket.”

“You’re making jokes?”

“No. Well, maybe. Look, we better get out of here. There’ll be more coming soon.”

We ran back to the barricaded tunnel. In no time at all I was at least thirty yards in front of Maria. When I got to the barricade I could see that Jack had made some headway. The Humvee almost had at least half of its hood past the barricade. But it still wasn’t enough.

I shifted a ride on lawn mower out of the way. The ease of moving it surprised me and I nearly lost my balance.

Kenji had his door open slightly. I could see him through the gap between the tunnel and the barricade. “Did she make it?” he asked. “Did you get her?”

“Yeah.” I answered. “She’s fine. We’re gonna try and move this steam roller. Maria should be able to drive it out of the way.”

“Yes! Good. Hurry. They’re coming.”

Just then I heard gunshots. And screaming.

Daniel was standing up through the man hole in the roof of the Humvee. He was providing cover fire. I heard Kenji tell Jack to stop driving while we moved the roller. And then Kenji started shooting as well. At first he was shooting in short and controlled bursts, like Daniel. But then after a few seconds they started to unleash. They both reloaded and started shooting again. But they couldn’t keep that up, I thought. There was no way. We didn’t have the ammo. I really wished that giant machine gun was working.

Maria jumped up on to the steam roller and sat in the driver’s seat. She was out of breath. “Damn, you’re fast!”

She fumbled the keys for a bit and then finally turned them.

The steam roller came to life and she was able to slowly drive it out of the way.

Once she was clear, I gave Jack a wave and a thumbs up to let him know he could try and break through again. But the rest of the barricade was still pretty heavy. It consisted of a couple of trailers, another ride on lawn mower, a vending machine, tables and chairs, even a fridge.

Jack tapped Kenji on the shoulder and signaled something with his hands.

Kenji nodded and then turned to me. “Stand clear!” he shouted. “We’re gonna ram it!”

Kenji closed his door. Daniel remained standing up, firing away.

The screams were getting louder now as more and more infected crammed into the tunnel.

Jack reversed the Humvee so he could get a run at the barricade.

Maria and I moved to the side of the tunnel. We ducked behind the boundary fence, hiding in the first row of seats to make sure we were protected from any flying debris.

I guess because we were too focused on the tunnel and the barricade and everything that was chasing us through the tunnel, we kind of neglected our surroundings. We didn’t even see this guy until he spoke.

“Hey,” he said.

We turned around in shock. We had been taken completely by surprise. Maria screamed.

But for some reason I wasn’t totally scared. I think it was the way he said, ‘hey’.

It just wasn’t threatening at all.

The man was a soldier. He looked to be in about his mid-twenties. He was wearing military fatigues. He was lying down, pressed against the fence. He was jumpy as hell. He was scared, just like anyone would be in this situation.

His eyes were darting all over the place. But his body remained still. Clutched in his hands was a rifle. Again I moved in front of Maria, acting as a shield. “Please don’t shoot!” I blurted out. “We’re not infected.”

He shook his head. “It’s OK. I’m not gonna shoot you. Relax.”

It was only after he had told us to relax that I realized there was no ammo clip in his rifle.

“Who are you?” I asked, almost demanded. “What are you doing here?”

He coughed, shut his eyes and seemed to grimace in pain, before regaining his composure. “I was part of a convoy,” he said. “We were escorting some doctor or some VIP. I wasn’t even really sure. Nobody tells the grunts, you know? We got separated. Something attacked us. A horde. They were hiding. It was almost like they were waiting for us. And it wasn’t just the infected, something else, something bigger and smarter attacked us. They attacked as a pack, split our group.”

He suddenly inhaled sharply, like he was in pain. He coughed again.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “What is it?”

“Look, you gotta get to the airport,” he said. “That’s you’re only hope.”

“The airport?”

“Yeah, command set up a base of operations there. It’s heavily fortified, heavily guarded. It’s the only safe place left.”

“OK, well, let’s go,” Maria said. “Come with us. We’ve got an armored Humvee.”

“No. I can’t. I gotta wait for my squad. This was the emergency rendezvous point. I gotta wait.”

“You’re kidding, right?” I said. “There’s no one left, they’re gone. The city is completely overrun, completely abandoned.”

The man opened his shirt to reveal a bite mark on his ribcage. He was infected.

I took a deep breath. “Do you want me to help?” I asked as I vividly remembered the last time I attempted to put a soldier out of his misery, back in the morgue of the North Sydney hospital.

The soldier shook his head. He said he wanted to go out with a bang. He showed me the grenades strapped to his chest.

A second later, the Humvee smashed through the barricade. Bits of wood and metal and glass shattered and exploded. The Humvee skidded to a stop on the dusty grass.

Daniel stuck his head out of the man hole. “Come on!”

“Looks like your ride is here,” the soldier said.

I wanted to take him with us. But the bite, the infection, I knew it was hopeless. There was no point. Which sucked. Felt like I’d been kicked in the guts.

The soldier pulled the pins on his grenades. All four of them. “Go!”

We didn’t need any more telling. We both remembered the grenades from the police station. We’d both been shell shocked.

We moved quickly. We jumped over the boundary fence and sprinted for the Humvee as both Daniel and Kenji fired their last bullets into the unstoppable river of infected that was pouring out of the tunnel towards us.

As soon as we were in, Jack floored it.

We took off for the other side of the field, towards the other emergency access tunnel.

Behind us, we heard the explosion of the grenades.

“Jesus Christ! What was that?” Jack asked.

“Grenades,” Maria and I said at the same time.

“What? Where did you get grenades from?”

“There was a wounded soldier,” I said, only half explaining myself. “He was infected. He wanted to go out with a bang. Will we be able to smash through the other barricade?”

“Probably not,” Jack answered.

“Great,” Maria said. “Did you guys even think this through? What are we gonna do now? There’s no time to move this one!”

“Hold on!” Jack shouted as he pulled the steering wheel hard to the left.

He began to drive round and round in a circle, creating our own mini dust storm, tearing up the turf of the SCG.

Soon enough, the horde were chasing us in circles. We were running over some of them but they were more dispersed now. Jack had confused them. He straightened up and sped back towards the tunnel that we’d come in through. There were still more coming in, but nowhere near as many as before.

Most of them were on the actual field now.

We drove back into the tunnel like a runaway freight train.

Jack told everyone to hold on. I grabbed on to Maria.

I held her and I did not let go.

We were travelling at what felt like a million miles an hour. The first few we hit we didn’t even feel. But then as we drove deeper into the tunnel, we started to run over more and more. They were wall to wall inside. At one point there were so many crammed up against the front windshield, all we could see were infected, their faces covered in blood, their teeth exposed.

Luckily, the Humvee was reinforced. They couldn’t break through. And since the vehicle was armored and extra heavy, the wheels never lost contact with the ground. Although it was still terrifying being that close to so many and not being able to see daylight.

But then a few seconds later we emerged from the tunnel. Jack swung the steering wheel hard to the right. Most of the infected were thrown off. But a few of them were able to hang on somehow.

Daniel climbed up and out of the manhole and picked off the determined ones with expert precision.

We were finally free.

We drove across the road, bouncing over the median strip and the sidewalk and the gutters. We drove through the tree line and back on to the open parkland. The Humvee fish tailed back and forth as the tires momentarily lost grip.

Jack wrestled with the steering wheel and eventually regained control as we sped away from the Sydney Cricket Ground.

And I continued to hold on to Maria. I did not let go.