We kept on running.
6.
The trouble with running through a dark forest in the middle of the night while being pursued by a mob of zombie kangaroos is all the damn trees. Juliet did a surprisingly good job of dodging around them, and as long as she kept her grip on my wrist, I wasn’t overly worried about slamming into anything. Jack had his flashlight, and he was urging Rey and Olivia along behind us. The moans were still audible in the distance. They should have faded out by now, and the fact that they hadn’t meant that at least one of the infected kangaroos had followed us into the forest, probably assuming that we’d be easy prey. They were right about that much. If we didn’t make it back to the Jeep before they caught up with us, we were as good as dead.
“Great idea, Jack!” shouted Juliet as we ran. Apparently, keeping quiet was no longer much of a concern. “Let’s go past the fence and look at kangaroos so that Mahir will understand the importance of the research that’s happening here! Oh, and by the way, let’s get eaten while we’re out there!”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking!” called Jack. The bastard was laughing. I very rarely wanted to punch anyone as much as I wanted to punch him in that moment.
“Less banter, more run,” shouted Olivia.
We ran.
We ran until my legs felt like they’d been replaced with jelly and my lungs felt like they’d been replaced with something even squishier. The moans behind us continued, and I felt a surge of gratitude for the trees. If we’d been on open ground, the kangaroos would already have been on top of us. As it was, they couldn’t get up to full speed in the space they had available, and their disease-addled brains weren’t allowing them to realize that they could just go around.
The Jeep couldn’t be much farther. I held fast to that thought as I forced myself to keep moving. Once we were at the Jeep, we’d have an engine on our side, not to mention the structural support of the frame. We’d be able to drive away from this hellish adventure, and never look back. We’d—
Juliet stopped running so abruptly that I slammed into her. She put out her free arm, preventing me from toppling over. “We have a problem,” she said, voice suddenly pitched low.
I followed her gaze to the Jeep, which was undisturbed, no kangaroos in evidence. Then I realized that something was moaning, something much closer than the mob that was even now trying to shamble its way through the woods. I looked down.
My first impression of the fuzzy round creature staggering slowly toward us was one of near-overwhelming cuteness: It was like one of Sanjukta’s plush toys had somehow come alive and shown up for the zombie adventure. It was round, all of it, from its round little nose to its round little body, with stubby legs and tiny triangular ears. It also seemed remarkably solid for something so small; I got the distinct feeling that it weighed more than I could possibly guess just by looking at it.
Jack and the others ran up behind us, and Jack swore. “The f**king wombat. How—”
“Not sure that matters,” said Olivia. “It’s between us and the car.”
“Well, I can’t lead it away,” snapped Jack. “Wombats are too damn slow, and they know it. It’ll stay where it is and try to pin us down.”
“We’re being menaced by a teddy bear,” I said, barely able to believe the situation. “We’re going to die because no one can decide what we should do about the teddy bear.”
“We’re not licensed to shoot a wombat,” said Rey.
“Oh, for f**k’s sake.” Juliet released my arm and whirled, grabbing the gun out of Jack’s hands. I saw his eyes widen. In that moment, I think we all knew what she was going to do. No one moved to stop her. Juliet turned back around and shot the wombat three times in the head, grouping her bullets so that the entire top of the plump little creature’s skull was blown away.
No one said anything as she turned and handed the gun back to Jack. The kangaroos continued moaning in the distance.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
“Marry me,” said Jack.
Juliet smiled a little. “You can visit me in prison,” she said.
7.
We were in the Jeep and driving back toward the fence long before the kangaroos reached our position. I watched out of the rear window as they hopped out of the forest, pausing to nose at the fallen wombat. A few of the sicker-looking ones stopped there, satisfying the demands of the virus that had overtaken their normally herbivorous bodies. The rest followed us for a while, but quickly fell behind.
“Almost there,” said Rey. The Jeep felt like it was going to shake apart around us. He was doing a remarkably good job of keeping it under control—and then I saw the lights of the fence up ahead of us, and stopped giving much of a damn about the Jeep. As long as we reached that beautiful fence line, everything was going to be all right.
“We’re going to take a pounding tonight,” said Olivia.
“Do you mean us, specifically, or the fence?” I asked.
“Both,” she said. “Look.” She pointed to the fence. I squinted and realized that I could see guards through the glare. They seemed to be lined up, waiting for us.
I groaned. “I’m getting deported.”
“Look at it this way,” she said. “It’ll make a great story.”
Rey continued driving straight for the fence, stopping with the bumper only a foot or so away. He cranked down his window, leaned out, and shouted, “Open the gate! This is an official research vehicle!”
“There are no research trips scheduled for tonight, sir,” shouted a voice—Rachel. She sounded bloody pissed. I couldn’t quite find it in myself to blame her.
“Come on, Rachel, open the gate,” shouted Jack. “There’s a mob behind us!”
“You could be infected, then,” she said. “It seems like a huge risk.”
“Rachel, please,” said Rey.
“You are all arseholes,” she snapped, following it with: “Open the gate! Guns ready! This is not a drill!”
Slowly—too slowly for my liking—the section of fence in front of us slid up, until Rey was able to drive the Jeep through the opening. The guards moved to surround us, keeping their guns trained on the break in the fence until the gate had closed again. Then they turned to train their guns on us instead. Much more reassuring.
Guards walked up with blood testing units in their hands. “Very slowly, without letting your hands slip out of view at any point, I want you to each exit the vehicle and take a blood test,” said Rachel. “If any of you test positive, you’re all going into quarantine.”
“Same old Rachel,” said Olivia amiably, and slid out of the car. The rest of us followed her.
It was almost reassuring to be going through the old familiar “take test, prick finger, wait for the lights to stop flashing” routine. The infected kangaroos arrived about halfway through the process, beginning to fling themselves against the fence. None of the people I was with paid them any mind, and so neither did I, although it took actual effort on my part. One by one, our tests came back clean and were placed into the waiting biohazard bags.
The last to get a clean test result was Juliet, whose reservoir condition doubtless confused things a bit. When her lights finally turned green, she dropped her unit into its bag before extending her hands in front of her, wrists together.
The nearest guard promptly handcuffed her. “Juliet Seghers-Ward, you are under arrest for poaching,” he said. “Please come with me.”
“See you at the arraignment,” she said.
“See you at the wedding,” Jack said, and leaned in quick, stealing a kiss.
Juliet was still laughing as she was led away. It seemed like there was nothing else she could do. The rest of us stood there, the kangaroos attacking the fence behind us, and watched her being taken.
8.
“Let me get this straight,” I said slowly, struggling to keep my temper in check. “Because Juliet was the only one to harm an animal, she’s the only one who’s actually in legal trouble, but she could be deported?”
“Assuming a convenient Australia natural doesn’t somehow find his way into her cell and marry her, thus renewing her citizenship, yes,” said Rachel.
I paused, my temper dimming as I perceived the overall shape of her plan. “Ah,” I said.
“Naturally, I would need to be distracted for that to happen.”
“Naturally,” I agreed. “Olivia is waiting outside. Would you care to walk with me?”
“Since you’ve proven yourself to be a dangerously seditious element, yes, I believe I would,” said Rachel. She stood, walking around her desk, and moved to open the door. “Is your life always this exciting?”
“Only when I’m very, very unlucky,” I said, and stepped outside…only to find myself facing what appeared to be another incipient riot. I groaned. “Such as now.”
Rachel stepped out behind me. “Again?”
“Funny, that’s just what I was thinking.” I trotted the few steps to where Olivia was standing. “Now what?”
She turned to face me. “They’re saying the kangaroos attacked last night. That Juliet’s missing because the kangaroos got her.”
“But that’s just stupid,” I said.
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Try telling them that.”
I paused. “All right,” I said finally. “I will.”
“Wait, Mahir, I didn’t mean—”
But I was already striding toward the crowd. When I reached the edge, I clapped my hands. Most of them ignored me. I clapped my hands again before cupping them and shouting, “May I please have your attention?”
The noise around me stopped. A few heads turned. No one looked terribly impressed. I lowered my hands.
“Er, hello,” I said, suddenly self-conscious. “My name is Mahir Gowda. I’m a visiting journalist with After the End Times. I came to learn more about your fence. It’s a marvel, really. I never dreamed that there could be anything like it. I’ve also learned quite a bit about your country. And one of the things I’ve learned is that you’re all being bloody idiots right now.”