Zombie An Aussie Apocalypse - Book 1

by Adam Smith

  “Mark, use the hiab to lift the generator on to the truck,” I say as I load the last of the full diesel cans on the tray of the Ute that we have decided to take as well as the new bigger truck. “yeah mate all done.” says Mark as he climbs down to the ground to secure everything on the tray.

  “That's it mate. That’s everything I think we can take.” I yell to Mark as he climbs into the driver’s seat of the truck. “Hmm guys, I think we've got a problem.” yells Sandy. “what?” both Mark and i ask sharply. “There's a whole big bunch of zombies coming this way, they're coming straight for us!” Screams Sandy! Mark laughs and yells “now the fun begins!”

  I climb onto the back of the truck and tell Sandy. “get in the Ute put the windows up lock the doors and follow us.” “Take these” I say to Mark handing him a bag of guns and ammo. “What's the plan?” Mark says as he grabs a .357 6 shot revolver and loads it. “ I'm set mate, again WHAT'S THE PLAN?” Yells Mark in a panick. “Just give me a second here mate, I’m working on it.” I yell back as I look through the shopping bags trying to find all the pieces I need to make some homemade bombs. As soon as I have found what I need and start wrapping it all together Mark leans out the window of the truck and starts shooting. “What the fuck!” I yell. “They're 30 fucking metres away! We need to move now!” yells Mark. “Start fucking driving then!” I yell back, I light the fuse on one of my home made bombs and throw it into the pack of zombies that's getting close, Mark starts driving towards them as the bomb goes off. Boom! It explodes and takes out enough to make an opening. As the truck ploughs into the pack I light the second bomb, Mark stomps on the accelerator causing me to fall over and drop the lit bomb off the back of the truck, Sandy drives over it and it goes off just behind her. Boom. Taking out some zombies with nails to their faces. “Wooh! Got some with that.” I yell to Mark “hold on to something Smithy.” Yells Mark as we pick up speed and plough into another dense section of the pack. “Start Shooting we're almost through.” Yells Mark as I start taking pot shots at the last of the pack in front of us from the top of the moving truck. Blood sprays here and blood sprays there, the sound of cracking bones and popping skulls. We clear the pack and get on the main site access road, doing about 80km/h I reload all my weapons as we speed towards an intersection when I hear Mark yell “ hold on brah!” Holding on to the cab racks I stand up so I can see over the cab of the truck, I can see a zombie in the middle of the road and I know Mark wants to run it down. Mark speeds up, moves onto the right hand side of the road, lines the zombie up and clips it with the passenger side of the bull bar sending it flying into the keep left sign in the island in the middle of the road face first, it's head splits down the middle. I am in shock at the amount of awesome that was involved in the zombie kill as its head slides down the sign and onto the hot gravel road below. “ha ha oh my! That was the best kill I have seen!” I yell to Mark as I climb down the side of the truck and through the passenger side window into the seat. “Mate, did you see that?” I ask. “No, what happened?” asked Mark. I set about explaining it to Mark when we get a call on the two way from Sandy saying “guys, can you hear me?” “Yes we can hear you Sandy, everything okay?” I ask. “yeah everything is fine, I just wanted to make sure you can hear me if something goes wrong.” replies Sandy.

  As we pull out of the mine site access road and on to the main highway and head for the coast I say to Mark “there's a road house about 200 kilometres from here we should stop and check it out. What do you think?” “sounds good mate, I'll tell Sandy the plan over the radio.” Says Mark.

  After about half an hour of driving we haven't seen any zombies, people or vehicles, Mark turns to me and says, “mate, there's something humbling about the nothingness and silence, isn't there?” “Yeah it's good and the best thing is, now I don't have to wait in line at the shops while morons still can't figure out how to use the self serve checkouts.” I say and laugh. Mark agrees as we carry on in silence towards the coast.

  “Wake up dickhead!” says Mark as he shakes me. “Huh, What” I grunt. “We're here, well nearly, the road house is only 5 kilometres from here.” He says. “Oh fuck I fell asleep?” I ask. “Yes, yes you did” giggles Mark. “Sandy we will stop just shy of the road house and search it on foot.” Says Mark over the two way. “Okay yeah sounds good.” replies Sandy.

  We slow down and come to a stop about 50m from the road house car park. “look” says Mark as he points at the car park. There's four 4wd vehicles parked up neatly beside each other. “Could be other people here mate” he says as we get out of the truck, load and ready our weapons, I grab my shotgun and put a bunch of shells in my pants pocket then I grab a .44 mag lever action rifle and fill my other pockets with rounds. “Do you want to come with us or wait here and keep an eye out?” I ask Sandy as she walks over to us loading her shotgun, suddenly she starts smiling, points at the roadhouse and says. “look, other living people.” As she starts to run to the roadhouse where 6 people are standing. “HI HI oh my god, you're alive!” Sandy yells as one of the girls standing with the group of people runs over and hugs her. “Sandy you're okay.” Yells the other girl excitedly as she begins to cry. “Does she know these people?” Asks Mark while we slowly walk over to the group. “yeah I guess so, but stay cautious.” I say quietly. Sandy and her friend go inside the road house as Mark and I get to within 20 metres of the group a tall, dark haired man pulls out a pistol, loads it, aims at us and yells” Stop! That's close enough!” Mark and I both instantly shoulder our shotguns and aim at the man. “What do you want?” the man yells to us. “We don't want to cause any trouble mate, we're heading for the coast and when we spotted the roadhouse we thought we'd investigate, that's all.” I shout back. “Either of you two been bitten?” Asks the man. Mark yells back “Do we look like zombies you dumb fuck? Of course we're fine”! “How do I know I can trust you?” the man yells back. I turn to Mark and whisper “Mate, these people are scared, if we back off for now they'll be more willing to talk, but stay weary these people are strange.” I lower my shotgun so the barrel is facing the ground. “Okay mate.” Says Mark and follows my lead with his shotgun. “My name's Mark and this is Smithy.” Says mark as he offers his hand out in front of him for the man to shake, he walks over slowly and shakes Marks hand and then mine. He says “ I'm Dale. I didn't think there was anyone else alive out here, sorry about the gun, we're just all a little bit scared at the minute, please come inside out of the heat.” says Dale as he turns around and walks to the door of the roadhouse where the rest of the group have gone inside. “No worries mate, cheers.” I say and we follow him inside.

  “Guys this is Fiona. Fiona this is Smithy and Mark, Fiona and I used to work at the pub together.” Says Sandy. “Nice to meet you Fiona.” I say. Fiona stands up and hugs Mark and I at the same time then says to Sandy. “come in here we have so much to talk about.” she takes Sandy by the hand and walks through the plastic curtain door into the shop side of the roadhouse. “This is Sarah and Phil, My daughter Chloe and my wife Leanne.” Says Dale who sits down to eat lunch at a long wooden table in the middle of the room we're standing in “Nice to meet you all.” Says Mark “So how did you all find out about the zombies?” I ask, “We were on a families fishing trip when it all started, we lost 2 of our good friends when our camp got over run one morning, so we packed up and drove back here as quick as we could to warn Sarah and Phil.” Says Leanne. “We had a car pull up here a few hours after we returned, Fiona got out and got out screaming and ran over to us.” Says Dale. “After we calmed her down, she told us that it's pretty much the same story inland where you've come from.” Says Leanne. “So we decided to stay here, we haven't seen any zombies or people since then, so we figure it's safe enough here to wait it out till it blows over.” Says Dale.

  “Mark, Smithy. Come in here for a second.” Says Sandy. “Excuse us.” Says Mark as we walk through the plastic curtain into the shop section and over to the counter where the girls are. As I get closer we can see
the worry and fear on their faces. “What's the matter?” I ask quietly. “These people, they aren't normal.” Whispers Fiona. She pauses, then continues quietly saying “ when I got here the tricked me inside, then trapped me here like a slave, they wont let me leave. They even have 2 zombies as pets in the paddock out the back.” She stops for a second and takes a deep breathe wiping tears from her eyes. “they lock me in the cage in the paddock and only bring me in to do the chores. When they heard you rock up they let me out and said I had to act happy and that if I said anything they would feed me to the pets piece by piece.” Cries Fiona quietly. “Fuck this shit we're fucking leaving.” I say sternly but quietly. “I agree” Says Mark. “Right, girls you go through the door first and walk straight to the exit and run for the truck once you're outside, but act normal.” States Mark, I look at him and say, “you go after them mate, I'll go last and try to stall them.” Everyone agrees, Fiona wipes her tears away, calms herself down and walks through the plastic curtain with sandy to the exit, Mark is close behind them. As I walk through the plastic curtain towards the door I can see Dale is agitated. I say “thanks for your hospitality but we're going to leave now.” before I can finish my sentence Dale stands up and yells. “No one leaves my house!” “RUN” I yell to the others. I run for the exit as Dale starts shooting at me. I trip over the door mat and scramble out the door to the side of the building and start crawling away from the door against the wall. I can see Mark has taken cover behind a car 15 metres from the door, he stands up and starts firing shots at the door and yells to me.“Run now Smithy, I'll cover you.” I get up jump over the garden bed planter at the edge of the concrete path out the front of the roadhouse and run for cover with Mark, bullets flying over my head and past me as I get to the car. We both duck down behind the car, Mark starts reloading, I can see that Fiona and Sandy have made it to where the truck and Ute are parked, we hear the door of the roadhouse fly open and Dale starts yelling. “No one leaves my house alive!” he starts firing at the car smashing the windows and spraying glass over us. “Fuck me!” I yell as Mark finishes loading. I lean the barrel of my shotgun over my head and onto the roof of the car, I start firing off pot shots we can hear Dale start swearing and stop firing, Mark and I look at each other and pop our heads up to see over the car. We see Sarah and Phil come through the door of the roadhouse firing at us, we both fire back on the doorway, killing Sarah as she tries to get through it. Phil stops halfway out of the door in shock as he looks down at Sarah, lying on the floor in a pool of blood with bits of her flesh hanging off her chest and neck. I fire another 12 gauge round at the door, just hitting Phil in the shoulder with a few of the pellets, he drops to the ground and crawls for cover with Dale behind the garden beds at the edge of the roadhouse where I had just come from. “I'm out.” I Say to Mark. I drop my shotgun, shoulder my .44 and cock it still aiming at the planter box. “Where's the mum and daughter?” Asks Mark while he frantically thumbs some fresh shells into his shotgun. Dale and Phil start firing at us again wildly from the cover of the garden planter. “Fuck” I say and duck back down behind the car. “How old do you think the daughter is?” Asks Mark. “Seriously? You're thinking with your dick now?” I Ask. “No ha ha.” Laughs Mark. “ I was never planning on killing a child.” He says, while the bullets keep smashing into the panels on the car and flying over head. “Mate don't worry about that. She's got to be early, mid 20s at least.” I reply. Silence falls over us. We stand up and see Phil Making a run for it. I line him up. Bang, reload, Bang, reload, Bang, with the third shot we see a blood splatter from Phils' head hit the wall behind him, he drops to ground dead, I return my aim to the garden bed planter where Dale is still hiding.

  “ARGH” We hear Sandy and Fiona screaming from the Ute, we can see the two pet zombies stumbling from the far corner of the roadhouse towards the girls. Bang, Bang, Bang, gun fire rings out from the wall at the far side of the road house coming from behind the zombies towards the girls. I see Dale sneak a look from his cover out the corner of my eye, I jerk on the trigger, bang, the shot rings out, a spray of rock, dirt, dust and blood flies into the air, Dales' body falls to ground lifeless with a hole between his eyes. I return my attention the corner of the road house and the girls who are within 10m of the zombies now, but they're pinned down by the gunfire from Leanne and Chloe. “We've gotta help them.” Says Mark. “Well start fucking shooting at the bitches!” I say while I reload. Bang, Bang. Mark starts shooting at Chloe and Leanne who stop firing and retreat further down the side wall of the roadhouse, Sandy stands up with a shotgun and starts firing wildly at the zombies killing them both, she continues to walk towards the wall that Leanne and Chloe are hiding behind firing but she runs out of ammo, as Sandy turns and starts running back to where Fiona is we hear a single shot ring out. It feels as is if time is moving in slow motion, we see a puff of blood from Sandys chest and she falls to the ground with a thud and doesn’t move. “FUCK” Yells Mark who starts running for Sandy, I quickly follow. “I see someone.” I yell as we both stop, Chloe walks out from around the corner to see if she's won the fight, Mark and I both start firing at her as quickly as possible, blood sprays, chunks of clothing and flesh fly from her as our bullets tear through her body, she falls to floor dead. “Mark, you stay here with Sandy, I'll get the other bitch.” I say and walk over to the roadhouse wall reloading, I walk around the corner cautiously and see Leanne's body lying face down in the dirt with a spray of shotgun holes across her upper back, neck and head.

  I run back to Mark who's talking to Sandy. “Is she okay?” Yells Fiona who's running over to them, with some rags and water. “she's alive, she's bleeding pretty bad tho, she's been hit in the arm and on her side” Says Mark. He rips her shirt open to check the wound on her side. Sandy screams in pain. “This on her side doesn't look serious, it's her arm that's the problem.” Says Mark, Fiona runs to the truck and grabs a towel and some vodka she comes running back while Mark and I tie a rag above her wound to stop the blood flow, Fiona pours the vodka over the wound in Sandys arm, she screams in pain again, and again she screams when we tie another rag around her arm over the top of the wound. “We need to get her out of here.” I say. Mark and I grab Sandy and lift her to her feet. “Where is Fiona?” I yell. “I'm here.” Yells Fiona and she comes running back over to us from inside the roadhouse. “Here Sandy I got some painkillers for you.” She says and tries to give them to sandy. “No, I can't take them, they'll thin my blood and I could bleed out.” Says Sandy. “I'm fine, just get me out of here.” cries Sandy. “I'm not leaving her side, I'll drive the Ute.” Fiona says sternly “I know of an old house about 40 minutes from here, it's hidden from the main road so it'll be a perfect spot to rest.” Says Sandy, We load Sandy in to the Ute with Fiona. “We'll follow you.” I say, Mark and I grab all of our guns and supplies that are on the floor and jump into the truck, Fiona takes off in the Ute and we follow them down the road towards the coast. “What the fuck just happened.” Says Mark who's driving while I reload what guns I can in the passenger seat. “Mate that was fucking insane, it's a little bit different when they shoot back though, isn't it?” I say to Mark who laughs a little bit and replies with “sure as shit is. Stupid backward arse inbred fucking clowns.”

  We follow Fiona and Sandy for about 30 minutes, the whole time the landscape is slowly changing, the bush and scrub is getting thicker and trees are starting to appear, she starts slowing down and turns right off the main road and into a small hard to see track, we head down the track into a thicker scrub and wooded area. “Coast can't be to much further from here mate.” I say to Mark. “Why do you say that mate?” He replies. “Because look at all the trees and bush now, no more desert, means we're getting closer to the coast.” I say. “huh, guess you're right, never thought about it like that.” Says Mark. We continue down the track for a few more minutes until we come into a clearing and see a small shack, we pull the truck up next to where Fiona has stopped the ute, we get out with some guns, walk to the
front of the truck and I say to the girls. “You stay here, we'll go and clear the house.” They agree, Mark and I walk towards the house, it's an old rectangle weatherboard house with a tin roof, a verandah and deck the whole way around the house except on the left hand side where there is a small single car open carport attached directly to the house wall, there is something large in the back of the carport that's covered and a large water tank just behind the back of the carport.

  We approach the single step up onto the deck around the house and make our way to the front door.

  “I'll open it, you get ready” Says Mark as he twists the handle on the front door of the small wooden house and pushes the door open, I walk inside with my shotgun readied, looking around the main room I can see that this is a large square room with a small kitchen in the rear left corner, a dining table on the left side of the room closer to the front of the house and a closed door about halfway down the left hand wall. On the back wall next to the kitchen there's a door that appears to lead outside and two windows. On the right hand side of the house there is a door in the back right corner, another door in the front right corner, some couches in the middle of the room in front of a fireplace in the middle of the right side wall. “this room is clear.” I say to Mark quietly and I move inside the house. “I'll take the doors on the right, you take the one on the left.” I say to Mark and head for the closest door on the right side of the room. I twist the handle and push the door open, looking into the room I see that it's a small bedroom, one single bed directly in front of the door against the back wall of the room with the toe of the bed against the front wall of the house, on the left side of the room is another single bed with the head of the bed to the head of the first bed, behind the bed heads is a small table with a lamp on it, I look further to my left and see a closet against the main dividing wall of the house. “This room is clear I whisper” and move back in to the main room and then on to the last door on the right hand side of the house. Meanwhile Mark is checking the door on the left side of the house. He opens the door and looks inside, on the left side of the room closest to the window in the front wall of the house is a large double bed with bedside tables at each side, towards the foot of the bed against the main house dividing wall there is a large pine closet, on the right hand side of the room is a wall dividing the room and a doorway, he moves to the door and opens it, a bathroom, there's a shower on the left side of the room with a large vanity in the middle against the back wall and a toilet to the right hand side of the room. Back in the main room I open the door in the back right hand corner of the room and look in, it's a bathroom, there is a shower on the far left corner and a bath on the right, a toilet next to the shower in between it and the sink, a vanity cupboard and mirror above the sink with a small window at the end of the bathroom high up on the wall. I walk back in to the main room and open the door on the back wall, it leads outside on to the verandah at the rear of the house, there's some small cane chairs and a wooden coffee table against the house wall facing out over the clearing towards the bush. “This is all clear.” Says Mark, I turn around closing the door behind me and say “yeah mate nothing here, let's go get the girls.”