by Adam Smith
The next morning we wake up, check outside for zombies, then gather all of our stuff up and get ready to head off for Cam's place. “It’s not far mate, maybe twenty minutes.” Says Mark looking at a map on the bonnet of the ute in the driveway. Sandy locks the doors to her house and meets us at the utes. “I’ll lead again mate.” Says Mark. We get in and head off. We see nothing on the short drive to Cam's place. We pull up the driveway and see the blinds move inside the house. “Did you see that mate?” I ask Fiona. “No. See what?” Asks Fiona. “Mark did you see the blinds move?” I ask over the radio. “Nah mate.” Says Mark. “Stay in the car and keep an eye out.” I say over the radio. Fiona and I stare at the window from the ute, the horizontal blinds move open a small bit then quickly shut again. I look at Fiona. “Okay. I saw that.” She Says. “I saw that mate.” Says Mark over the radio. “Cover me, I’ll go up and see if they want to talk.” I Say to Fiona, and also Mark over the radio. I open the door of the ute, I wave out the window, then I move up to the front door and knock on it. “Cam? Cam? Are you in there mate?” I ask loudly… “Who are you?” I hear from inside. “Mate, I know Lewis. He’s asked us to come here and check out if you’re ok.” I Say. I hear the door unlock, I signal to the others and they quickly come to the door but stay just out of view. The door opens and Cam is standing in front of me, I extend my hand to shake his, he shakes my hand and says. “How do you know Lewis?” “We met him out in the goldfields at the pub waiting for you.” I Say. “Oh really? He’s ok? Umm you’d all better come inside.” Says Cam as he stands sideways and ushers us inside. “Please come through to the kitchen.” He says to us as we follow him from the hallway into the kitchen and sit down. “This is Mark, Sandy, Fiona and I’m Smithy.” I say in the kitchen. “Nice to meet you all.” Says Cam. “Why haven’t you gone out to see Lewis yet mate?” Asks Mark. “Oh. Well you see.” Says Cam as we are interrupted by another man who walks in from the hallway. Fiona immediately stands up and points her rifle at the man as Sandy and Mark point theirs at Cam. “Start fucking talking mate!” I Say and smack the table. In shock and panicked Cam starts talking. “I’ve been cheating on Lewis for a while now and I thought he was dead. I thought this was my way out without having to face him.” “You’re a real piece of shit mate.” I Say. “How about we fucking drag you and your little fuck buddy here out to the pub so you can explain this to Lewis yourself?” Asks Fiona sternly. “No no please.” Sobs Cam. “I think you should leave now.” Says the other man. “I think you should shut your fucking mouth mate.” Says Mark as he stares at the guy. “He waited there for you! He still thinks you’re coming! And you just fucking abandoned him!” Yells Sandy in Cams face. “I’m going to film you. You’re going to explain to Lewis what’s going on.” I Say to Cam, I get up, walk outside, grab my phone and return inside. “And if you don’t want to do it, Fiona here is going to cut chunks off of your mate until you agree.” I Say with a smile, Cam looks at Fiona, she blows him a kiss and a wink. “Fine. I’ll do it.” Sobs Cam. We film him as he cries and sobs, explaining the situation. “You’re fucking pathetic. Hope you get bitten.” I Say, standing up, I walk out of the kitchen. “Got any coffee in here?” Asks Mark as he starts rummaging through the kitchen. Fiona, Sandy and I walk outside to discuss what way we are going to take to get to Fiona’s parents place. Mark walks out not long after us, drinking a coffee, we notice a pack of zombies coming up the street. “Don’t kill them. Get in the cars, go up the street and wait for me.” Says Sandy. We get in and watch Sandy as she walks up to the house and starts firing into the air. She then jumps the fence and runs over to us without the zombies seeing her. “Brutal.” Says Mark and kisses her. “Right guys follow us. We’ll check dad's church in the city first.” Says Fiona. We head off for the city. “Where abouts in the city is this church?” I ask. “Just outside of the city actually. It was a fifteen minute walk from the church into the city centre.” Says Fiona. “So a three minute drive?” I ask jokingly. “Yeah sounds about right.” Says Fiona. “Copy Mark. You wanna’ take the freeway in?” I ask. “Yeah copy that cob.” Says Mark. We pull onto a freeway overpass and take a look down it toward the city. “Pretty empty.” Says Fiona. “Should be the quickest way in.” I Say. We keep driving onto the freeway and head for the city. “Zombies on the left.” I Say to Fiona and then to Mark over the radio. We drive past a large pack of zombies that are on the side of the freeway, I hear shots ring out, looking in the mirrors I see Sandy firing out the window into the pack as we cruise past. We can see the city come into full view as we drive on down the freeway, smoke lingers in the air clouding the city. “Take this exit here.” Says Fiona. I get off the freeway and we head towards the church. “It’s very quiet in here.” I Say to Fiona. “I know, it’s creepy as shit, with the smoke in the streets.” Says Fiona. We drive through the quiet suburbs for a little bit longer, the smoke in the streets reduces visibility to maybe 70 metres. “Go right there.” Says Fiona pointing at the next street, I turn right towards the city, multi story buildings, maybe 7 stories tall on either side. “On the left. That’s the church.” Says Fiona. We pull up into the church car park, on the corner of two streets, the city directly in front of us a few hundred metres. “C'mon let's go.” Says Fiona, we get out and walk to the doors of the church. “We’ll stay here brah.” Says Mark from behind us, he and Sandy keep an eye on the streets. Knock knock knock. Fiona bangs on the door, we wait but nothing. I reach out and twist the handle, push the door open and walk inside, rifles and hand weapons ready, we enter the dark church. “I think it’s empty.” Whispers Fiona. I look at her and nod. We continue inside the church further, past the lobby area and into the main room. Stain glass windows and a large picture of Jesus on the back wall, we walk up the centre aisle between the pews. “Definitely empty.” I Say looking around. “Let’s get out of here. It’s creeping me out now, too quiet and untouched.” Says Fiona. We walk back outside to Sandy and Mark. “Anything in there?” Asks Sandy. “No. Completely empty, yet it’s completely perfect and untouched. Exactly as I remember it.” Says Fiona. “Now what?” I ask. “I wanna’ go and raid my old favourite pub up the road a little bit.” Says Mark. “What do you want to do now?” I ask Fiona directly. “Fuck it! The pub sounds good.” Replies Fiona. “That’s the way. Follow me.” Says Mark, he gets in his ute, we get in ours and follow him a few hundred metres up the road into the nightclub and bar area of the city. “What’s his favourite pub?” Asks Fiona while we drive. “Oh, the monkey or some fucking thing. It’s a two storey pub on the corner up here.” I Say. “Why does he like it so much?” Asks Fiona. “No idea.” I Say, we stop in the middle of the road outside the pub, Mark jumps out excitedly, walks over to us, banging on the bonnet. “Should we head in?” He asks us. “Guys! Zombies!” Says Sandy from the side of the ute. We all get out, walk to the bonnet of Marks ute and see several zombies wandering toward us. “Let's try and be quiet.” I Say to the others, grabbing my crowbar I walk toward the pack, Fiona and Sandy follow with their small axes, Mark grabs his crowbar and runs up to me. “Gotta love a mid morning hands on zombie slaughter.” Laughs Mark, we fist bump just before we get to the pack. I walk to the closest zombie, swing my crowbar sideways, the back edge of the hook slams into this zombies temple crushing its skull. I look over and see Fiona dislodging her axe from the top of another zombies head as Sandy swings her axe sideways into the back of a zombies skull. Mark push kicks a zombie off of the pointy end of his crowbar, it falls into me and knocks me over my own feet and the dead zombie on the floor, I hit the ground on my back losing my crowbar in the fall, a zombie falls on top of me trying to bite me. I grab it by the throat with my left hand keeping it away from me, I struggle to reach my crowbar, I put my right hand in my pocket and grab the ute key, I manage to get the key in my hand with the metal part in between my fingers and the plastic base in the palm of my hand, I clench my fist and punch the zombie in the eye, the key goes deep enough that it kills the zombie, I roll it off of me stumbling t
o my feet as I pick up my crowbar. “You all good mate?” Yells Mark. “Yeah mate.” I say in reply, spinning around I swing my crowbars hooked end into the jaw of a zombie that’s trying to chew my face off, I pull down on the bar, ripping its jaw clean off, I push kick it over and stomp on its head. I see the others killing the last few zombies. As the chaotic zombie slaughter ends Mark looks at me and says. “You like falling over during zombie skirmishes don’t you?” “Oh fuck off mate. You pushed me over.” I laugh. “Are you okay?” Asks Fiona. “Yeah I’m fine. Mark here wanted to see how a real man kills zombies. That’s all.” I say laughing. “Haha whatever mate. Let’s go.” Says Mark laughing, shaking his head, he wraps his arm around Sandy’s shoulder and walks to the pubs doors. Fiona slaps me on the arse as she walks past and says. “Try staying on your feet next time bae.” I just start laughing and walk off with her to the doors that Mark and Sandy have just walked through. We walk inside and see Mark behind the bar. “Yeah boy! They’ve got some bottles of my scotch still!” Yells Mark in excitement. “That’s why this is your favourite pub?” Asks Fiona. “Pretty much Yeah. It’s the only pub in Perth I’ve found that stocks this.” Says Mark as he pours out four shots of his favourite scotch. “Here. Wrap your laughing gear round these.” Says Mark handing out the shots. “Fuck that’s nice.” Says Fiona after drinking hers. “Holy shit!” Says Sandy. Mark and I Cheers each other before drinking ours. “This takes me back brah.” I say to Mark. “Sure does.” Says Mark. “You know there’s still a few bottles of this at home.” I Say to him. “I know, and one day soon I will be reunited with my babies.” Says Mark. “Smithy, you’re bleeding on your elbow.” Says Sandy. I look at my left elbow and see blood. “Shit is it a bite?” I ask. “Let me look.” Says Sandy, she cleans my elbow with some vodka. “Bad news mate. It’s just a cut. Looks like you’re going to have to keep on keeping on.” Laughs Sandy. “You scared the shit outta me. Saying bad news. Jerk.” I Say laughing. “Guys look at this. They were planning a ‘day of the dead’ New Year’s Eve party.” Says Fiona as she pulls a poster off of the wall and lays it on the table. We look at the poster. ‘Bring in 2017 with a bang’ is written across the top. “With a bang. Got that right.” I Say. “Day of the dead is a bit fitting.” Says Fiona laughing. We all look at her and start laughing. “There’s a tattoo studio not far from here.” Says Fiona with a wink. “Let’s go check it out.” I Say. “First let’s take everything we want from here.” Says Mark. We all set off in the pub searching for and taking everything we want from inside, I walk inside the office and see a safe, searching the office I find the keys, I open the safe and find a few stacks of money, some keys and some jewellery. I take it all and head outside with the others, we get in the utes and drive a bit further up the road to a tattoo studio. “I’m going in to get everything I need.” Says Fiona. “I’m going to stay here and fix my elbow.” I say to her. “Okay, i'll be back in a minute.” Says Fiona as she meets with Mark and Sandy to head inside. I’m sitting in the ute rummaging through the first aid box trying to find something to stop the bleeding on my elbow when I feel the ute start shaking. “What the fuck.” I say to myself, looking up I can see a rather fat zombie on my bonnet, it appears to be caught on the bullbar, I continue to look through the first aid kit, not concerned about the zombie, all of a sudden I feel something in the tray. I look in the mirror and see a fat zombie trying to get into the back of the ute, at the same time another fat zombie walks into the drivers side of the car and tries to bite me through the glass. I grab a bandage and try to wrap up my elbow, the whole time the car is rocking. I try to load my rifle but keep dropping the ammo because of the rocking. “Mate I’m going to fuck you up.” I say to the fat zombie at the window rocking the car, I finally manage to get a round into the chamber and realise it’s already full. “Of course it’s full you fuck head.” I say to myself. I pump the action shaking my head laughing at myself. I press down on the electric window button, but it starts going all the way down instead of stopping where I want it to. “Shit.” I say as the zombie gets its hands and arms inside, I try to push it away at the same time I try to get the rifle into a position I can use, I click the button for the window, it begins to close and jams the zombie in place momentarily but then it goes back down again. “Oh for fuck sake.” I say as I wiggle my way around the cab of the ute still fighting the zombie off. I manage to get the rifle into position as im laying on my back across onto the passenger side, hand brake lever wedged into my arse cheek, I’m kicking the zombie away as I put the barrel between my feet and fire into the zombies face, it falls backwards out of the window and onto the road, the shot attracts the other two to the drivers side window, I open the passenger door and fall out onto the street, I stand up, line up the fat zombies and kill them. “Why the fuck was that so difficult.” I say to myself. “You good there mate.” asks Fiona over the radio. “Yep. Just fan-fucking-tastic.” I reply, walking over to the doors of the tattoo studio, I walk inside and say. “Sandy can you please wrap my arm up.” “Sure, no worries.” Says Sandy. “What the fuck just happened outside?” Fiona asks me. I set about telling them while Sandy wraps my arm. I finish telling them and they all burst into hysterical laughter. “I’m going to the ute to have a beer.” I say. I head outside, walk to my ute, grab a beer and get in. while I’m sitting there I see three guys walk up to the doors of the studio, I can over hear them say. “They’re in here.” I grab my radio and say. “Guys, you've got company at the door. Stay frosty, I’ll stay here, click the radio three times if you need help.” I sit in the ute watching as all three guys walk inside. I hear some yelling and screaming going on, I get out of the ute and take cover near the door, one of the guys walks outside and looks at the ute. He turns and faces back inside. “Click click click.” my radio clicks three times. I move along the face of the building, and peek inside. I can see two of the guys with knives pointed at the others. “They've left their guns in the utes.” I think to myself. I creep up behind the guy standing in the door, I stand up, wrap my right hand over his mouth and punch him in the kidney as hard as I can with my left, he crumples into me. Without making a sound I drag him backwards away from the door snapping his neck and letting him fall face first into the street, I quickly shoulder my rifle and move to the door. I kick the door open, move inside, line up the guy closest to me, without hesitation I send a fresh, hot hollow point into his forehead right between his eyes. Mark and Fiona at the same time tackle the other guy to the ground. Mark grabs the knife from him, Sandy runs in and kicks the guy in the ribs as hard as she can, over and over again she kicks him in head and body. We stand back and watch her beat seven shades of shit out of the guy. “Stop. Please.” mumbles the guy on the floor, blood pissing out of his face, teeth and blood on the floor. “No one ever tries to hold me hostage.” Says Sandy. We all look at her. “Where did that come from?” Asks Fiona. “I’ve been shot at, actually shot, scared, chased out of town, chased out of our new house, my family is missing and these fucking morons think they can take me hostage and do with me as they please! Fuck that, fuck them, fuck you!” Yells Sandy. We all look her. “I think I needed a release.” Says Sandy. “Fucking good job darling.” Says Mark as he hugs Sandy. “Who are you.” I ask the guy on the floor. “Fuck you.” says the guy, he spits a mouthful of blood at me. I stand up, put the barrel of my rifle to his head and pull the trigger, the shot shatters the tiles under his head, blood, brains and tiles spray the wall next to him. “Not so useless now am I?” I ask the others laughing. “Let’s get out of here. If what he was saying is true we could be in trouble.” Says Fiona. “What was he saying?” I ask as we start walking outside. “Mate, he reckons there’s a big group of people that control the city now.” Says Mark. “And that we were going to be fresh meat for them.” Says Sandy. “Oh so they’re some sort of vigilante group are they?” I ask, carrying a box of stuff out to the ute. “Yeah, apparently so.” Says Mark laughing. “Where is the other guy that came outside to look for you?” Asks F
iona. “He should be on the floor over there.” I say pointing to the street in front of the shop. “Maybe he turned and wandered off?” Asks Sandy. “I doubt it, he didn’t appear to have any bites on him. Maybe I didn’t kill him, just knocked him out perhaps.” I Say. “Well if that is the case. A. You’re not as much of a mad stealth ninja killer as you thought. And, B, we could be in some shit if he’s made it back to his mates.” Says Mark patting me on the shoulder as he walks to his ute. “Let’s go into the city and see who we find then.” Says Fiona getting into the ute. I get in and start it up. “Follow me mate.” I yell to Mark out of my window. We drive back down the road, then turn right into the main part of the city, smoke fills the streets as we cruise up one of the main roads, I can hear yelling and chanting as I slowly drive up the road, we come to an intersection where the smoke isn’t so thick. I stop the ute as Mark pulls up next to me, we look straight ahead down then road and see some shadows in the thinning smoke, the chanting and noise gets louder, slowly people with flame torches, axes, bats and other handheld weapons stand only eighty odd metres across the intersection from us, chanting. “We want blood! Eye for an eye!” Over and over again. I look at Fiona then at Mark. “I’ll follow you.” Says Mark. The group of people stop walking and part in the middle, we can hear a car revving, the car slowly makes its way to the front of the crowd. “We’ve got to go!” I yell. I slap it into reverse and dump the clutch, I take off backwards in a cloud of smoke as Mark spins around in front me in a cloud of tyre smoke. I yank the wheel to the right put it into first a dump the clutch again, performing a perfect ‘J’ turn. We take off up the Main Street with the vigilante car following us. Gun shots ring out from it. “Stay with me cob.” I yell into the two way radio. I look at Fiona and say. Make sure you’re loaded and ready to shoot. Fiona smiles and says with a wink. “Already ready mate.” I hook it right into an alleyway with Mark behind me and the other car behind him. We turn left out of the alley into another main road of the city, coming towards a T junction I grab the radio and say. “Go right I’ll go left. I’ve got a plan.” I turn left at the intersection up a hill towards the city centre again, Mark goes right and heads towards the river. The vigilante car follows me still shooting. “What’s your plan?” Asks Fiona. “Just watch.” I say as I turn right then left again. Then as Mark pulls up behind me we turn left again. We see the vigilante car going the other way on a parallel street to us. I hit the brakes and slide to a stop. “Reverse in here.” I Say to Mark out the window he reverses into a small alleyway, I then reverse into the alley in front of him, we’re sitting there looking out into the street when we hear the vigilante car coming from our left, as it drives past I flash the lights and rev the ute. The vigilante car stops and begins to reverse back in front of me. “Get ready to shoot as soon as we’re side on.” I Say to Fiona. I dump the clutch and pull out onto the street, grabbing the handbrake and turning right I put our car parallel with theirs. Fiona starts shooting as we come side on window to window, I keep my foot buried into the throttle, drift around the front of the car while Fiona keeps firing, I spin the ute just enough to have the nose of our ute hard against the passenger side door of the vigilante car. Mark comes out of the alleyway and places his utes nose into the drivers door. We get out, guns shouldered and look in the car. The driver is dead, blood and broken glass all through the car, the passenger is bleeding out. “Take everything that’s any use.” Says Fiona. “Mark open the bonnet.” I Say. “Why?” Asks Mark as he opens the bonnet. “I’m making this car into a car bomb.” I reply. Just as I shut the bonnet we hear the group getting closer. “Fuck. Let’s move!” I yell. We hear gunshots ringing out and hitting the buildings around us, we get in the cars and take off up the street, stopping a few hundred metres up the road we look back as the group gets to their car, they drag the bodies out, they all start yelling and firing into the air. Someone gets in the car and then. Boom! The car explodes in a huge fireball. “Holy shit!” Says Sandy. “I wasn’t fucking expecting that.” Laughs Mark. “Let’s go!” I yell. We get in and start driving. “Back to the pub? Or do you want to search for your parents some more?” I ask Fiona. “Nah fuck them, they’ll be okay. Let’s just get the fuck out of here and back to the pub.” Says Fiona. “Mark. We’ll stop at the servo tonight, then back to the pub in the morning.” I say over the radio. “Yeah copy that.” Says Mark. We head out of the city as fast as possible, continually checking if we’re being followed. We pull up at the servo for our overnight stop, we quickly clear the house and servo, then we hide the utes behind the house and head inside. “That was absolutely fucking insane!” Says Sandy. “That was awesome.” Says Mark. “It was definitely an interesting trip.” Says Fiona as I hand everyone some beer and join them in the house. “Where do you think the safe zone, quarantine place or whatever it’s called is?” Asks Sandy. “I’d imagine on Garden island or Rotto. Well that’s where I’d put it.” I Say to the others. “Makes sense.” Says Sandy. “Well I guess we’ll find out everything eventually.” Says Mark. “Cheers everyone.” I Say, we all Cheers our beers. “I’m pretty devo that we didn’t get to my house to get my cars back, but we can go another time once these vigilante dick heads forget about us.” I Say laughing. “We did get some cool shit though.” Says Fiona. “Fuck Yeah!” Says Mark, he gets up, runs outside then runs back it with a bottle of his favourite scotch, he walks in the kitchen, grabs four glasses and comes back over to us. “Time for some of this heavenly goodness.” Says Mark. He kisses the bottle then pours us all a glass of the amazingly good scotch. We start drinking and talking shit until the sun goes down and into the night, eventually we all fall asleep on the floor and couch. We are woken by a loud noise from outside. Mark and Fiona quickly look outside to see what it is. “Four zombies that I can see.” Says Fiona. I get up and walk over to the window with her. “See any mate?” I ask Mark. “Nah, just the four near you.” Says Mark. Sandy walks over, hands us our rifles and crowbars. “Guess it’s time to go then.” I say. Fiona opens the door, walks outside and smashes the closest zombies skull in, I walk to the next one and drive the pointed end of the bar into its skull. Fiona then shoulders her rifle and fires, I spin around and see her firing at a small pack that’s come from around the side of the servo. “Fuck it, let's just go.” Says Mark. He and Sandy quickly run to their Ute. Mark push kicks a zombie in the chest that’s at his ute door. He then jumps in and starts the ute. Fiona and I run to our ute, Fiona puts her rifle barrel in a zombies mouth and pulls the trigger, its skull explodes, as I am running I swing my crowbar upwards into the jaw of a zombie near the drivers door, it falls over and hits the ground, I walk over to it and stomp it’s head in before getting in the ute. We look over as Mark reverses out crushing the zombies skull that’s on the floor next to him. I burst out laughing as it’s brains spray up the side of his ute. We take off onto the road and head for the pub. “What’s the matter Mark? Not feeling like such a mad dog zombie killer today?” Asks Fiona on the radio, we see Mark stop the ute, lean out the side and spew up, we pull up next to him. “To answer your question. No, I’m too hungover for zombie killing today.” Says Mark as he gets out of the driver's seat wiping his mouth. “Maybe I should drive.” Says Sandy, she gets out and walks to the drivers side, Mark opens the ute tray and grabs some cold beers then looks at us and says. “Fuck it! You lot have got this.” He laughs, cracks open a beer, looks back down the road giving the zombies the finger, he then gets in the passenger side of the ute. I start laughing and take off up the road. “What a clown.” I Say to Fiona laughing. “We should get some dirt bikes or something like that for some fun.” Says Fiona. “Yeah that’s a good idea.” I Say. “We can ask Lewis if he knows of anywhere when we get back this arvo.” Says Fiona. “Poor Lewis. I wonder how he’s going to take it all.” I Say. “No shit. Hope he snaps and goes to Cams place and fucks him up.” Laughs Fiona. “I’d definitely follow him to see that unfold.” I reply.
