by Wilde, J. M.
I left the bathroom and headed down the hall to explore the other rooms, but I caught a glimpse of something out a window that made me stop in my tracks. I peered out into the yard below to see six figures moving in the shadow of the house. I knew what they were by the way they moved, dragging their rotting feet and stumbling around. I spun on my heels to leave, only to see one of them standing at the base of the stairs, looking up at me menacingly.
I stood on the landing, holding the hammer ready, waiting for it to come to me. I knew I had to kill it quickly and quietly or risk alerting his friends in the yard to my presence. I didn’t stand a chance fighting off all of them.
I had to get out of there, and that zombie was standing in my way.
The hammer started to shake in my hand as I waited for the zombie to make its move. We had only been in our standoff for a second, but it already felt like hours.
A low gurgle echoed from its stomach, causing disgusting grey foam to drip out of its black lips. It began stumbling up the stairs fast, triggering me into action. I stepped down, meeting it halfway and smacking the back of the hammer into its skull, cracking the decaying shell wide open. Its arms were still trying to latch onto me, so I pulled the hammer out and smacked it down again, jumping back when its entire prefrontal cortex fell onto the carpet. It stopped groaning and collapsed onto the floor into a bag of bones. It was dead, but it didn’t go quietly. I had no doubt the group in the yard would have heard it. I flicked the hammer in the air to get the leftover grey matter off of it before leaping over the bannister and running out the front door.
I ran down the path towards the road just as the horde came around the side of the house, spotting me and giving chase. My shoulder stung with each swing of my arms and my legs felt weak, but I didn’t stop. I knew I’d never be able to take on six zombies with just a hammer. I had two choices: run, or die.
“C’mon, Eva,” I said to myself, trying to motivate my body to move faster. “Keep going. You can do it.”
I could hear groans as they followed behind, hunting me like their prey. But even in my weakened state, I knew I could be faster than them. All I had to do was keep going and never look back.
Chapter Five
Long after I had outrun the horde, I was still on edge. Every gust of wind or crack of the earth beneath my boots made me jump. I was in the middle of nowhere, with only a handful of trees and shrubs in sight. It was just me, the road and the red dirt of the country. The sun bared down on me, the temperature heating up by the second, and it would only grow hotter as it neared midday. I felt my skin burning under the rays and sweat rolling down my back. I hoped to find some sign of civilization soon; I didn’t know how much longer I could walk. My body was already under duress after almost drowning and fighting the infection, and I could feel my legs shaking with each step I took. And with no end in sight, my hope was wearing thin.
Try as I might, it was hard to stay positive when my physical, mental and emotional strength was waining. Doubts swirled around my mind like a carousel, and I wondered if I was fooling myself to think I could make it to Sydney in the state I was in. I’d come so far, but I didn’t feel any closer to freedom. In fact, with nothing but barren wasteland around me, I felt further from it than ever before. Knowing I had to find a car, drive into the epicenter of the outbreak, and stay alive while waiting for rescue ... It seemed a mammoth task that I wasn’t sure I could undertake. I let out a sad sigh, feeling like it was me against the world.
The tip of my boot caught in a small crevice in the dirt, tripping me up. I fell forward onto the ground, the force of the impact reverberating through my sore bones. I groaned in pain, my knees and palms scuffed and scratched. I knew I had to keep going, but I couldn’t muster the willpower to push myself back up. Resting my head on my arms, I began to cry. And once I started, I couldn’t stop. A river of tears flowed as the emotions I’d been bottling inside for so long finally burst through. I watched my tears fall onto the dry earth, and all I wanted to do was stay there until death found me. I’d never felt so weak, so hopeless before—not even when my parents died. As distraught as I had been then, I had Jo. She was my rock, and as I lay there contemplating a lonely death, hers was the face I longed to see the most. During the toughest times of my life, Jo had always been by my side, cheering me on. But this time, I was alone—more alone than I’d ever been. For the first time in my life, I wanted to give up. And it frightened me; I’d never given up on anything, and suddenly there I was, ready to give up on everything. I was just so tired of it. Of everything. I was tired of being scared, of running, of fighting. It had beaten me. I lay there for what felt like an eternity, trying to decide my fate.
The sound of dirt being kicked around interrupted my sorrowful thoughts, and I looked up to see a zombie slowly coming towards me. My instincts told me to get up, to get to my feet, to fight or take flight. But I didn’t move. Instead I just lay there, watching as it came closer. It was a woman, her facial features too far gone to tell how old she might have been. Her hair was dark, she wore ripped jeans and a faded t-shirt, and she moved like she’d been walking for weeks, her body as broken and weary as mine felt. I wondered if I was really that different from her. There we were, both stranded in the middle of nowhere, just trying to survive. I sat up on my knees, watching her as she began to close in on me, and asked myself if the only thing that separated me from her was a heartbeat. She moved closer, and soon she was reaching out for me. She clutched onto my shoulders, pushing me back as she growled, her jaw hanging open and ready to bite. I stared at her curiously, looking into her grey, clouded eyes, asking myself if this was how I wanted it to end. But something about her eyes sparked in me a will to fight. It wasn’t the sickly dull color of her iris or the evil glare they gave, it was rather their lack of vibrancy, the absence of humanity. The vacancy in her eyes made me see that I was nothing like her. She was mindless. Heartless. Soulless.
Unlike her, I was still alive. And as long as I was alive, as long as I had a heartbeat, I had a chance. I thought of all the reasons I had to live, to survive. Too many people had risked their lives for me, and even more were depending on me. Priya had put all her trust and her most important legacy in my hands, and it had the power to change the world. And Jo, Wyatt and Ben were still out there; if I chose to keep going, I had faith that I would see them again. The rescue ship was coming, and if I just kept going, that ship would take me away from that place, my nightmare, forever. I couldn’t throw all that away in one moment of weakness.
Finding my strength, I wrapped a hand around the zombie’s rotting neck, holding her back while I reached for my hammer. I held it up and stared her in the eyes with a fierceness I didn’t know I had.
“You won’t beat me,” I said, poising the hammer. I gritted my teeth as I plunged it into the side of her head, watching her die at my hands. I threw her body backwards and stood over it. “You won’t beat me.”
And with that, I knew I wouldn’t give up—no matter how hard things got.
I would not be beaten.
Chapter Six
Almost six hours after I fled the field hospital, I came across a country town. I spotted a small shopping centre and made a bee-line for it, hoping one of the three cars left in the parking lot still worked. I was only a few feet away from an old four-wheel drive when I heard the sound of an engine revving. I spun around, but saw nothing. The entire area was sparse and completely void of any signs of life.
But the roaring grew closer, and I realised it was coming from the shopping centre. Peering into the building, I couldn’t believe my eyes. A car was speeding through the inside of the centre, sending tables and chairs flying into the air as it plowed through the food court.
“What the ...?” I muttered to myself, watching as the car disappeared from view. I could still hear it, skidding and screeching its way through the mall. A loud bang from inside the building echoed throughout the carpark, startling me.
Seconds later, the car explod
ed through a store window, catapulting shards of glass and lingerie-clad mannequins into the air. It was coming straight towards me at rapid speed. I jumped out of the way, landing on the ground as it swerved to avoid me, crying out as my injured shoulder slammed against the asphalt.
I scrambled to my feet, watching as the car spun around to face me, the tires screeching so loud I had to cover my ears. The sound of glass crushing behind me got my attention. I turned to see dozens of zombies running out of the building, their dead eyes pinned on me. More than one of them became snagged on the broken glass on their way out, tearing their stomachs open, but even that didn’t slow them down. There were too many of them for me to take on alone.
The car spun around in the carpark, pulling to a stop a few meters away from me.
“Get in!” a woman’s voice called from the driver’s seat.
I ran to the car and jumped into the passenger seat before the woman pressed her foot down on the pedal and we sped forwards.
“Where the hell did you come from?” I asked as I looked in the rear view mirror, watching the dozens of zombies shrink into the distance.
“Me? What about you?” the girl answered. “Who stands in the middle of the road like that?”
“It wasn’t a road, it was a carpark,” I said, still watching to make sure the zombies were getting smaller. “Besides, who drives through a shopping centre?”
She laughed. “Touché.”
I turned to look at her for the first time. She was young, probably in her early twenties. Her light brown hair was pushed back into a messy bun and out of her face, which had a sprinkling of freckles on it. But there was something else about her appearance, something that I recognised all too well: she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were stained with tears. I instantly regretted snapping at her when I got in the car.
“Thanks for saving me,” I said, turning to look out the front windshield. “I’m Eva.”
“Lea,” she said, taking a hand off the steering wheel and reaching it out. I shook it, noticing she had a tattoo on the underside of her forearm that read: this too shall pass. I hoped it was right.
“So, what were you doing driving through the shopping centre?” I asked, curious.
“I took a wrong turn,” she said. “Actually, I kinda had to. I was driving down the road on the other side of the block and drove into a giant mess of those assholes, so it was either take a short-cut through the centre or get swarmed. What I didn’t anticipate was that the centre would be full of ‘em, too. They’re just everywhere.”
She adjusted the rear view mirror and glanced at it suspiciously, making sure we weren’t being chased.
“What about you?” she asked. “What were you doing out there? How’d you survive in this town alone?”
“I’m not from here,” I said. “I was just passing through. I’m from Melbourne, but I was in Cairns. Now I’m headed to Sydney.”
Her eyes widened. “Sydney? You’re willingly going to ground zero? Are you nuts?”
I sighed. “Probably, but ...” I paused, wondering if I should tell her about the rescue after all those people at the field hospital didn’t believe me.
She shot me a sideways glance as we sped down the highway. “But?”
“But there’s a rescue operation going on. A ship is headed to Sydney right now, ready to pick up uninfected survivors.”
She turned to look at me, staring at me for an uncomfortably long time for someone who was driving. She searched my face for truth—or insanity—and then noticed my wounds. After inspecting me, she turned back towards the road and started pumping me for information.
“How do you know that?”
“I heard it on a radio recording.”
“Where?”
“In a bunker in Cairns.”
“When?”
“About two days ago.”
“What happened to your shoulder?”
“I got shot.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Jeez. And how’d you get all those other bumps and bruises?”
“I got swept up in a river swell. And before that I was beaten up by the same guy who shot me.”
“Is he dead now?”
“Yep.”
“Good.”
There was a pause, and I pulled the water bottle Priya gave me out of my bag and took a swig.
“Hey,” Lea said, eyeing the bottle. “Do you happen to have any more of that?”
“Sure.” I grabbed one of the bottles I found in the housing estate and handed it to her. She twisted the lid off with her teeth and started gulping it down, clearly having gone a long while without water.
“Thanks,” she said after downing more than half the bottle.
“No worries,” I said. “So, do you believe me?”
She placed the water bottle in the cup holder next to her. “I haven’t decided yet.”
I shifted in my seat, trying to think of a way to prove I was telling the truth. Then I remembered what Priya had given me. I slid the manila folder out of my bag and flipped it open, revealing the stack of research papers.
“What’s all that?” she asked, glancing down at the documents.
“A doctor from a field hospital gave it to me. She asked me to deliver it to the authorities on the rescue ship. It’s everything she discovered about the virus, including treatment methods.”
“Wait ...” she said, holding her palm up. “Did you just say ‘treatment methods’?”
“Yes.”
“Do they actually work?”
I thought about telling her that it worked on me, but I feared she wouldn’t believe me, or at worst, she would assume I’m still infected and kick me out of the car.
“From what Dr Desai said,” I started. “If they apply the treatment in the early stages of the virus, it’s successful.”
Lea grinned and slapped the steering wheel excitedly. “Yes! That’s awesome!”
“I know,” I smiled, suddenly realising just how incredible and important the information in my hands was to the world. “That’s why I have to get it to the ship. This information could save thousands, even millions, of lives. It could prevent anything like this ever happening again.”
Lea looked down at the folder, then up at me, then back at the folder, chewing on her lip as she pondered something. “How long do we have ’til the ship arrives?”
I smiled, thankful that I didn’t have to make the journey alone. “We have about a day and a half. It gets there on the 24th.”
“That’s plenty of time,” Lea said. “We can be there in a couple of hours. We’ll need to find petrol though or we won’t make it to the next town.”
“So you believe me?”
“I’ve got nothing to lose, may as well help you out,” she said. “Whether it’s true or not, I guess I’ll find out when we get there. But for now, I’m just happy to feel something other than fear again. I almost forgot what it felt like to feel hope.”
Up ahead, I spotted a car on the side of the road. I noticed writing on the back windshield, written in mud: Help! Need petrol.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones who need petrol,” I said. As we drove closer, I saw a trail of blood leading around the car, it looked like someone had made loops around it as they bled. I turned to get a better look as we drove past, cringing at the sight of a mauled torso and dismembered limbs spread over the hood of the car, blood spattered all over.
Lea sighed. “Hope we do better than they did.”
“We have to,” I nodded.
“So ...” Lea said, changing the subject. “Why didn’t that doctor come with you? You obviously told her about the rescue ship.”
“She couldn’t leave her patients. And none of the other doctors believed me so they wouldn’t come either.” I pulled my hair tie out and started re-doing my ponytail, wondering if I did enough to help all those people at the hospital. “All those people ...” I paused. “This was their o
nly chance to make an escape. If only they believed me. If only I’d had more time to convince them.”
“No point feeling guilty about it,” Lea said. “Something I’ve learned since all this crap started is that you can’t save everyone.”
I thought about that for a moment, and remembered all the people I hadn’t been able to save along the way. Jill. Martin. Nikki. Elliot. Priya and all those poor people at the hospital. And I had no idea if Jo, Wyatt and Ben were alive or not. I’d be devastated to have to add their names to the list of people I had failed.
“Right now, I’d settle for just saving anyone,” I said quietly. “Just one person.”
“Well, you’ve saved yourself,” she said. “More than once by the looks of it. Don’t underestimate how important it is to save yourself. I’ve seen plenty of people lately who are waiting for someone to rescue them without doing anything themselves, and I’ve seen even more who just don’t want to be saved. They’d already resigned themselves to death, ignoring anything or anyone who offered help.” She stared blankly for a while, as though looking into the past. After a silence, she cleared her throat and added: “Besides, once you get that folder onto the ship, you’ll have helped save countless lives.”
I stretched my neck, feeling the weight of responsibility pressing down on me. I literally had the fate of the whole world in the palm of my hands. If I didn’t get that research to the ship, the virus might never be beaten, and worse: it could happen again in another unsuspecting country, repeating the nightmare all over again. I tried not to think about all the ways I could screw up, and instead visualized myself walking onto that ship and handing the folder over to Commander Renner. I knew I had to have faith in myself, otherwise I’d be giving up just like all those people Lea spoke about.
