by Adam Smith
“We’ve added extra tanks in the trays to hold 250 litres of fuel, they’re directly connected to the main tank. An external roll bar system. A custom made bullbar to protect the engine. Tyres filled with anti puncture foam, two way radios, so many spotlights and light bars that the sun will be jealous and most importantly. More power.” I Say to the girls as they stand in front of us in the pub car park in the warm morning sun looking at the new utes for the first time since we finished them. “Nice work.” Says Fiona. “Oh wow. So does this mean we can go to Perth?” Asks Sandy. “Yeah we can head off tomorrow morning maybe.” I Say. “Where’s Lewis?” Asks Mark. “Still asleep I guess.” Says Fiona. “Before we go we need to hide some of our stuff.” I Say. “We’ll take a bunch of guns, ammo and supplies with us, but need to leave some here as a backup.” Says Mark. I walk inside the pub and grab the key for a room. I walk outside, grab some supplies and guns. I head over to the room go inside and put it all up in the ceiling. I lock the door behind me and walk back outside where the others are looking at the truck. “What are you guys doing?” Asks Lewis. “We’re going to Perth tomorrow mate. You coming or staying here?” I ask him. “Oh. Umm I I think I’ll stay here incase Cam comes. Umm can you go to his house for me and check it out while you’re there please? If you’re coming back here after?” Asks Lewis. “Yeah mate we’re coming back.” Says Fiona. “We can go there for you mate.” I Say. “Get your phone and show me a picture of him so I can take a photo of it.” Says Mark, he takes care of the photo and address of Cam. We set about getting everything ready to head off before the sun comes up in the morning. That night in the pub drinking and looking over a map we start talking about the best way into the city. “If we go left here we’ll end up coming into the city from the east.” I Say. “We need to be coming in from the north though. That’s where my parents house is.”’Says Sandy pointing at the map. “Guys If we come in here from the north we can bypass a few towns and we can use the main roads straight to Sandy’s house.” Says Fiona. “What if they’re all blocked?” Asks Mark. Then we can use the back roads.” Says Sandy. “That’s not really important is it? We just need to get there the easiest fucking way.” Says Fiona. “She’s right guys.” I say. “Yeah yeah you think you’re always right. Blah blah blah.” Says Sandy making a talking mouth motion with her hand. “No need to carry on like a pork chop mate.” I Say. “Yeah we are only going to Perth because of you.” Says Fiona. “Don’t fucking come then.” Says Sandy. “Would you lot shut the fuck up!” Yells Lewis. We all stop and look at him, he walks over to us and points at the map. “If you take this road all the way to here, then, then follow the, the highway to here, you can take this r, r, road all the way to the suburb your house is in and you’ll avoid almost every t, town, town on the way.” Says Lewis as he runs his finger along the map. “Holy shit! Good plan mate.” I Say to him. “That’s a brilliant idea.” Says Sandy. “Sorted then.” Says Mark. Sandy looks at Fiona and says. “Sorry hun, I’m just frustrated.” “Lucky I love ya stupid face.” Says Fiona and hugs Sandy. “Yeah sorry guys, no need for us to argue.” I Say. We stay up for a while before we head to bed.
We get up while it’s still dark and meet outside. “Right then mate. Don’t get eaten and don’t let anyone take our pub from you.” I Say to Lewis and shake his hand. The others say their goodbyes and get into the cars. Sandy and Mark in the lead green ute. Fiona and I in the black one. “You lead mate. A buck fifty should get us there in about four and a half hours.” I say over the radio. “Copy that mate.” Says Mark as he lights up the back tyres and takes off down the road in a cloud of smoke. “How much beer did we bring for this fucked up trip?” Asks Mark over the radio a short while into the drive. “Plenty, I hope.” Says Fiona. “There’s going to be plenty of bottle shops on the way.” Says Mark. Just as the sun is starting to rise in our rear view mirrors. We carry on driving for a few more hours when we see a small servo at the next turn we need to take. “Mate this place is about 90 k’s out. I think we should stop here and clear it so we’ve got somewhere to stay. You know, just incase.” I say over the radio. “That’s a good idea.” Says Fiona as Mark replies on the radio. “Yeah mate I’ll pull in.” We pull up to the small servo. There’s only 4 pumps under the covered roof out the front of the shop and another 2 pumps in the truck section to the side. There’s what appears to be a small house attached to the side of the servo. We pull up under the covered area and get out. “Clear the shop first.” I Say to the others, we grab our guns, ammo and handheld weapons. We walk to the doors and take a look inside. It’s completely stocked as if it were about to open for the day. “Looks good inside.” Says Fiona as she prys open the wood and glass swinging door, we walk inside while Mark and Sandy stay out the front keeping an eye out. As soon as we walk inside there’s shelves of lollies and chips in front of us with oils, coolants, other additives, batteries, small tools and other mechanical stuff on the back wall, next to that is some fridges. We turn right and walk past some small racks with magazines in them under the window. Underneath the counter is some more racks. “We’re going to check out the house.” Says Mark from the door. “No worries mate.” I say as I turn and face him. I can hear Fiona searching through some of the racks. I turn around and face her, she’s sitting on the counter, legs crossed her shotgun beside her, she lifts her mirrored aviator sunnies onto her head and opens a chocolate bar. “Fuck you’re a good looking creature.” I Say to her. She looks at me smiles and says. “You go alright yourself.” With a wink as she bites her chocolate. “Do you want some?” Asks Fiona. “We still talking about the chocolate?” I ask. “Who said I was talking about it at all?” Says Fiona. As she gestures for me to come to her. I walk over to her, and well…
“You guys finished?” We hear Sandy ask politely from the door. “For now.” Says Fiona cheekily and kisses me. We walk outside to the utes where Mark is waiting for us, I look at him and he says. “All clear in the house mate. This’ll be a good spot to stop if we need it.” “Should we carry on then?” Asks Sandy “Yeah we’ll keep following you guys. Head straight for Sandy’s house. Oh and stay frosty.” I say as I walk to my ute shoulder my rifle and fire. The shot echoes off the servo and undercover area as the round slams through the eye of a zombie that’s about 100m up the road we just came down. “There’s going to be a lot more than we are used to.” I say as I get in the ute. “You’re a bit of a cool cat. Well at least you think you are.” Laughs Fiona as she gets in the passenger side. I just look at her with a steely eyed glaze but I burst into laughter. “No one does the stare like you mate.” I say through my laughter. “Damn straight mate.” Says Fiona with the steely eyed stare, making me laugh more, I hear Mark take off in his ute, I put it in gear and let the clutch out but the utes not even running. “Been driving long you fucking spaz?” Laughs Fiona causing me to laugh so hard I can hardly breathe. “You guys coming?” We hear over the radio through our hysterical laughter. I start the ute and head off as Fiona says “Yeah mate we’re coming.” Into the radio trying not to laugh. As we head for the suburbs we come over a hill and can see the city in the distance, smoke coming from various parts of the city and surrounding areas. We begin the descent towards to the suburbs it seems quiet only a few abandoned cars and not a lot of life, as we pull up to an empty road block, we drive around the sandbags and through the open boom gate past a makeshift guard house, it’s completely empty. We carry on through the outer suburbs heading towards the coast and Sandys parents house. We pull off the small back road and get onto a more main road, we drive for a little while and then see a small pack of zombies wandering up the road towards us. “Time we try out these bullbars mate.” Says Mark over the radio, he speeds up and slams into the pack, a zombie flies sideways as he hits them, another one comes over his roof and hits the road in front of us, I move the ute to my right, smashing the zombies head with the passenger side of my bullbar, a spray of blood and brain mists over the windshield in front of Fiona. “Oh dude, wipers please.”
Says Fiona, I put on the wipers and carry on following Mark, he swerves to his left and I see a zombie go flying into a tree on the side of the road. “This bar’s working well.” Says Mark over the radio. “We’ve been here for five minutes and already you’re trashing place.” I say over the radio laughing. We turn left at a major intersection and head down the road for a minute, then right into a nice coastal estate. As soon as we turn into the estates main road we can see four zombies in the park on the left. “Slow down, watch this.” Says Fiona, she puts her window down, leans out with her rifle and starts shooting, the first round hits a zombie in the shoulder, Fiona reloads and fires again, hitting the zombie in the head and killing it, I carry on driving as Fiona keeps shooting from the window killing another zombie. I follow Mark and we keep going straight down the main road. “I got a few mate.” Laughs Fiona as she starts reloading her rifle. “Good shooting, good practice, I get the feeling we’ll get plenty of practice while we’re here.” I say to her. Mark turns left into a street that runs along the beach. We pull up to a house, Mark and Sandy get out. “Guess this is it.” Says Fiona, we get out and walk over to the others on the driveway. “We’ll keep an eye out, you two head inside.” I say as we look at a large double storey house on a large beach front block. Mark and Sandy walk up the path to the door. “Sandy’s parents are loaded.” I Say to Fiona as we stand at the bottom of the driveway looking over the road and footpath at the beach. “Yeah she mentioned something about them having a little bit of money once.” Says Fiona, we walk across the road to the footpath, leaning on the small fence next to the footpath staring at the ocean. It’s flat, no wind no swell, hot midday sun, the smell of the sea, sand and shrubs, it’s an almost perfect day. “I want to go for a swim.” Says Fiona. “It looks bloody nice.” I Say. We turn around and look back at house, looking up the street to our right we see six zombies coming up the road, Fiona looks at me and says. “Guns or hand tools?” With a smile. “Too hot for nonsense mate.” I Say to Fiona, I shoulder my .22 pump action rifle and fire at the zombies. Fiona joins in as we line up and fire at the zombies. I look down my sights and squeeze the trigger, the zombies nose turns red as the round enters its face, I hear a noise from behind us, I spin around and see three more zombies coming from the other direction, Fiona keeps firing into the first pack as I line up the closest zombie to me. Just as I fire. “I’ve gotta’ reload, there’s two left.” Says Fiona. I pump my rifle and drop two of the three zombies in front of me, I go to fire again but I’m out as well. “Shit, gimme some ammo.” I say to Fiona. “I’ve got none, they’re in the ute.” Says Fiona. Bang! Bang! Bang! We hear Mark and Sandy start firing at the remaining zombies, they all drop to the ground dead. “You two would be fucking dead without us.” Laughs Mark as he walks out onto the street with us. “What did you find hun?” Fiona asks Sandy who’s walking over to us with a letter. “Mum and dad left me this letter, it says that they are okay and that they went with the army to the quarantine and safe zone.” Says Sandy. Does it say where the quarantine zone is?” I ask. “No it doesn't.” Says Sandy as Fiona hugs her. “At least they are safe.” Says Fiona. “Yeah that’s true.” Says Sandy. “Should we stay here tonight?” Asks Mark. “I’m keen for that.” Says Fiona. “I’m keen for beers.” I Say. “Yeah we can stay here.” Says Sandy. “I’m going swimming. You coming?” Says Fiona, she walks towards the beach with Sandy, Mark and I grab an esky of cold beers and dart across the road to follow them down to the beach. “Shit hang on mate.” I say to Mark, I run back to the ute and grab a box of ammo, then run back to Mark and we head down onto the sand. The girls are standing on the shore looking into the clear water as Mark and I walk over with some beers. “Here.” I Say, handing one to Fiona. “Cheers mate.” Replies Fiona. She drinks the whole lot in one go, drops the stubby on the sand, takes her shirt and jeans off stripping down to just her underwear, she then runs into the water, Mark and Sandy take a seat on the esky, I take my shirt off leaving just my board shorts on and run out into the water with Fiona, the water is nice and refreshing. We swim around for a little while out to where we can’t stand, I can hear Mark yelling, I look at him, he’s waving erratically to get my attention, then pointing up the beach, I look up the beach and see a large pack of zombies coming along the sand. “Shit! We’ve gotta get to shore and help them.” I Say to Fiona who’s floating on her back unaware.” “What are you talking about.” Says Fiona, she looks up at me pointing at the zombies. “Shit!” She Says, we both start swimming back to shore, we reach the shallow water at the same time as Mark begins to fire at some wailers that are in front of the pack now. I run up the beach and Sandy throws me a rifle that she’s loaded, I turn and start shooting next to Mark, the first shot goes above the wailers and hits a zombie in the pack, I try to regain my breathe before lining up the next one. “Where the fuck did the they come from?” Asks Fiona as she and Sandy stand next to us and start shooting. Sandy fires and the closest wailers skull disintegrates. “What fucking ammo are you using?” I ask her. “The black cartridges.” Says Sandy. “Oh shit! They’re solid slugs. Nice!” I Say to her. “Here trade with me.” Says Sandy passing me her lever action shotgun, I grab it and hand her my pump action .22 rifle. I line up and fire at the last wailer, the slug hits it in the top lip just under the nose. Teeth fly out of its face, it tumbles over backwards onto the dirt. We all reload while the pack of zombies gets closer. We start firing when they’re no more than 20 metres away. First four shots yields four zombie kills. We keep firing into the pack, flesh, blood and skull fragments fly into the air as the massacre unfolds. “I'm out!” I yell to the others who are still shooting. “Me too.” Says Mark and Fiona at the same time. We look at Sandy, she pumps her rifle and fires! The round hits a zombie in the top of the skull, she pumps and pulls the trigger, click. “I’m out.” She Says. Mark and I walk toward the remaining five zombies, I lift my rifle over my right shoulder and slam the stock into its face, pushing its nose into its brain, I look at Mark, he swings his crowbar that was hanging off his belt into a zombies head then he slams the pointed end into the mouth of another one, I walk to the next zombie in line and end it the same way as the first one. Fiona walks past me Mark and I with an empty stubby and smashes the last zombie in the face with it, the bottle shatters and the zombie stumbles backwards, Fiona then put the barrel of her rifle in its mouth and fires. “Bunch of fucks ruined my beach day.” Says Fiona looking at me, still dressed in just her underwear. The hot sun beating down on us, the smell of rotting flesh, ocean air, sea water and gunpowder creates a sort of soothing scent. “If only we could make this smell into a candle.” I Say to the others. “Why? So you can be reminded of all of this afterwards?” Asks Sandy. “Well yeah. Pretty much.” I Say in reply, opening the esky and grabbing out some beers for everyone. “You’re a strange boy.” Laughs Sandy. We finish our beers sitting around the esky. “Well we should probably head up to the house. That noise might have got the attention of someone.” Says Mark, we agree and head up to the house. Fiona grabs a bag of clothes from the ute. Mark and I move the utes inside the garage. We head inside and meet the girls in the kitchen, Fiona now wearing a sundress leaning against the kitchen table, Sandy also in a sundress sitting at the table. “Here.” Says Fiona throwing me a shirt, some dry shorts and underwear. “Thanks doll, looking good.” I Say with a wink making a clicking sound pointing at Fiona. She shakes her head and laughs. “Any chance of some power in here?” Asks Sandy. “We’ve only got the two small generators in the utes. So we can only run a few things at once.” Says Mark. I drop my shorts and underwear in the middle of the kitchen and go to get dressed into the dry clothes Fiona gave me. “Bit cold mate?” Laughs Mark. “Really Smithy!” Says Sandy. “What? Y’all never seen a dick before?” I ask standing there completely naked, spinning my dick around making helicopter noises. “I see a massive dick every time I look at you mate.” Laughs Mark. Fiona spits her drink out in laughter as I get dressed laughing. We sit at the table with a few beers.
“What are we going to do tomorrow?” Asks Fiona. “Head into the city centre and check it out?” I ask. “Could do, we need to check out Cams place.” Says Mark. “I want to go and check my parents place tomorrow.” Says Fiona. “Okay, we will go to Cams place, then we’ll head over to your parents place, then into the city.” I Say.
