by Adam Smith
We walk outside and over to the ute, Sandy and Fiona are standing at the front of the ute leaning on the bull bar, “is it all clear?” Asks Fiona, “yeah all safe in there.” I reply. Fiona helps Sandy walk into the house while Mark and I grab some water from the ute and head inside.
“ I want to have lay down guys.” Says Sandy, “Come in here.” Says Mark and walks to the main bedroom of the house, Sandy follows him and gets comfy on the bed. “Here, have some water.” Says Mark as he places two bottles of water on the bedside table, turns and walks to the bedroom door, he turns around, faces Sandy and says “just call out if you need anything, oh and I'm Glad you're okay. “Thank you” Says sandy and smiles at Mark as he turns around, walks out of the bedroom back into the main room and shuts the door behind him. Fiona and I are sitting at the dining table in the main room, Mark walks over to us, pulls out a chair and sits down at the table just as I'm asking Fiona, “so what's your story Fiona?” “Well I was living in town with Sandy then the zombies showed up, I thought everyone was dead so I left town ended up at the roadhouse and yeah, that's it.” Says Fiona. “That's it?” I ask. “Well yeah... What do you want me to say? Do you want me to tell you? some super long and sad story that you're going to hear from plenty of scared people on the way?” Says Fiona as she stands up and walks over to the kitchen sink, turns around to face us and leans against it. “Ha ha, Fair enough” I say as I finally get a good look at Fiona, Tall, slender build, long wavy black hair. She's got a full arm tattoo sleeve on her left arm, wearing a black tank top and ripped blue jeans, she looks at me and says “I do have a past and shit tho, but we can talk about that shit later, it's been a pretty strange day today, and to be honest with you I wouldn't mind getting cleaned up and having some beers, but I don't think that's going to happen is it?” “Lucky for you that me and Mark weren't planning on going through this apocalypse sober.” I say laughingly and walk outside, Mark and Fiona follow me outside. “What are you talking about?” Asks Fiona. “Take a look at the back of the truck. All those eskys are full of food, ice, beer and other supplies.” I say. “That's awesome but still doesn't help the fact that we have no power or running water to have a shower.” Says Fiona. Mark is in the carport and yells out to us saying “OI, come here, I think I've solved your other problem.” We grab some beers and walk over to the carport where Mark is standing, ready to see what's under the cover that he is in the process of removing. “it's a Generator.” Says Mark. “Holy shit! Please tell me that it works.” Says Fiona happily. Mark and I set about checking the generator to make sure it'll run. “Needs some diesel, but otherwise it should be ready to go.” Says Mark, I walk over to the truck and grab two full 20L diesel jerry cans and bring them back to Mark. “Here mate start filling it up, I'm going to see how much water is in that tank.” I say passing Mark one of the jerry cans and placing the other one on the floor. I walk over to the large water tank not far from the back of the carport and tap the side to see if I can tell how full it is, it's hard to tell as I walk around it tapping it some more when I see a ladder on the back side of the tank, I climb up the ladder to the top of the tank and see a lid, I open the lid and look inside the tank and see that it's about ¾ full. I shut the lid climb back down the ladder and return to Mark and Fiona in the carport. Mark finishes pouring the last of the first jerry can in the generators fuel tank. Fiona goes to grab the second one. “We won't put another one in it yet, in case it wont start, we don't want to waste any” Mark says to Fiona. “Oh that's a good point.” Says Fiona. “Ready to go mate?” I ask, “Yeah mate. Crank her over.” Says Mark. I turn the key but nothing happens. “Battery must be fucked.” I Say. “All good mate.” Says Mark as he jogs over to the truck and grabs the battery jump pack and runs back over with it. “Try this out.” He says, we attach the jump pack to the battery and we get ready to try it again. I turn the key, all the lights glow on the control panel, I turn the key again to start, the generator turns over slowly at first but then it begins to fire and slowly splutters into life, but then stalls. I try to start it again and it fires up and starts running. “There we go.” I say. “Oh my god! I can have a shower.” Says Fiona. “Might want to wait a while for the hot water system to heat up the water, if it works that is, I'll go and check it” Says Mark as he walks around the back of the house to the hot water system. “Want to give me a hand Fiona? We need to move the truck and ute over here. We can reverse the ute in here and put the truck on the driveway facing out.” I say, “Yeah no worries I'll move the ute now.” She replies.
“This place is hidden and out of the way.” I say to Mark and Fiona once we have moved the vehicles around and we are all standing at the tray of the ute having some beers. “We should stay here until Sandy is good to travel again.” Says Mark, “Yeah this place is nice. But I don't think it's a permanent house for trying to survive this... this... whatever this is.” Says Fiona. “Yeah I think we all agree on that.” I say and have a drink. “Oh how did you go with the hot water?” Asks Fiona “All good, it's heating now and I even turned on the water pump, so you'll be able to have a hot shower in about half an hour or so.” Says Mark. “Fuck yeah mate. Good job.” I say to Mark and high 5 him. “We Should take some shit inside before it gets dark, I don't want to have to come out here after dark.” Says Fiona. “Why are we a bit scared miss?” I Ask her jokingly. “Fuck you, you dickhead.” Laughs Fiona as she slaps me in the shoulder as a joke. “For that comment you can bring all the shit in yourself.” Says Fiona as she giggles, grabs two more beers out of the esky, turns around and walks to the house door and inside. Mark and I both have a laugh, grab some supplies and walk inside, we make a few more trips grabbing all sorts of stuff, then go inside and lock the doors. “Guys, check this out.” Says Fiona. Me and Mark both stop and look at her standing next to the front door, she flicks the light switch “ding” the lights turn on. “ha ha we got power” Says Fiona, she walks to table where I am standing, grabs her bag of clothes, walks to the bathroom, turns around and says “Don't drink all the beers boys.” She goes into the bathroom and closes the door. “What are we going to do now?” Asks Mark. “I Don't know about you, but I'm getting my drink on, making some dinner out of whatever the fuck we have in here then crashing, today was pretty full on.” I say, “sounds good to me.” Says Mark, he walks over to the main bedroom door, opens it and goes inside to check on Sandy.
While I'm going through the food box on the kitchen table trying to find something to make, Mark comes back out of the main bedroom. “How is she?” I ask, “She's good mate. I'll take her some food and she can sleep for the night. She asked if we have any antibiotics in our stash of shit?” Marks says. “Oh… ah, I think there is something like that maybe in the box in the cab of the truck.” I say, “I'll go out and grab it.” Mark Says and he walks out the front door to grab the box of random medicines we took from the pub and our mine site.
“Fuck yeah, that's better.” Says Fiona as she opens the bathroom door, walks out into the main room and puts her bag of clothes down on the couch. “What are you making me for dinner?” Fiona asks me. “A healthy cold liquid starter with nachos as a main.” I say and pass her a cold beer, she laughs and takes a seat at the table, Mark comes back inside with the medicine box and tips it out on the table. “Help me find some antibiotics would you guys.” He says and starts searching through the pile of pills, creams and other random medical supplies. “You two can look I'm making some food” I say as I grab a bag of corn chips some dip, a packet of grated cheese. I walk over to the kitchen, turn on the oven and start making some nachos.
“Shit there's nothing in here that Sandy has asked for.” Says Mark in frustration. “That's okay Mark, I'll be fine for tonight, but I think I will need some antibiotics sooner rather than later.” Says Sandy who is now standing in the doorway of the main bedroom. “There's a major town about 180 kms from here, you and I can go there at first light mate, they're bound to have a big pharmacy and a doctors office, probably even a small
hospital.” I say to Mark. “Yeah sounds good mate, Sandy can you write us a list so we know what to look for?” Says Mark “Yeah okay.” Says Sandy, she walks to the dining table and sits down with Fiona to write a list for us.
“You girls can have the rooms, Mark and I will sleep on the couches tonight.” I say and bring the now ready food over to the table and take a seat with everyone else. Everyone agrees, we all have some food and head to bed for the night.
“Wake up brah.” I whisper and gently shake Mark, he opens his eyes quickly and looks at me. “What, What's wrong?” He says quietly. “Nothing, it's time to head out for town and track down these supplies.” I say. “Oh, yeah, right.” Says Mark and he sits up, then stands up. We grab some guns and ammo from the front door and walk outside, locking the door behind us and walking to the ute. It's only just starting to get light but light enough for us to see what's around. “We should be able to get there pretty fucking fast if we get a wriggle on.” I say to Mark. “Yeah mate, you can drive though.” Says Mark as I get in the driver's seat and start the ute. “What are you doing?” I ask while I'm waiting in the ute. “Gotta' piss.” He replies. After a few seconds he jumps in the passenger side and says. “Right, now I'm ready let's go.” We drive out of the driveway onto the small track and towards the main road, at the main road we turn right and head for the next town as fast as the ute will take us. With the sun getting higher in the sky in the rear view mirror we see speed signs on the side of the road saying 90km/h then a big sign welcoming us to town, then a 70 km/h sign and we start to see houses and abandoned cars, we travel further down the road. “There go left.” Says Mark and points at a sign saying “Town Centre” at the top with an arrow to the left. We turn left onto what we assume is the main road through the towns centre. Shops on the right and left as we cruise down the empty main road, we turn left into the car park of the shopping centre. “There it is.” I say as I pull the ute up to the front of the pharmacy, which is next door to the doctors clinic. “Browns family practice and pharmacy” It says on the door to the pharmacy. Still sitting in the ute we look at each other and nod, I turn the ute off and we get out quietly. “Grab a crowbar from the tray.” I say to Mark, he walks to the tray, gets two crowbars out and meets me at the glass double sliding doors. “Wonder if there's any Z's in there.” I Say as we both press our faces to the glass and look in, Mark looks at me and says. “Z's? Really that's what you're calling them now?” I look at Mark and laugh. Bang! “Whoa.” We both yell and jump back from the glass as a zombie slaps the glass on the inside of the pharmacy, smearing blood on the glass, another zombie appears next to the first one and proceeds to bang on the glass. “Should we shoot them, or do you wanna' pry open the doors and smash their skulls in?” I ask Mark. “Definitely the latter.” Says Mark with a big smile on his face. “Ha ha, that a boy.” I say. I grab a crowbar from Mark and wedge it into where the two doors meet, I force it in and start trying to open the doors. “What the fuck is holding this thing shut?” I say angrily. “Hang on mate, I'll have a look.” Says Mark, he looks into the small gap between the doors, meanwhile the zombies are still growling at the doors trying to get to us. “The latch is caught. Stay there I'll get something to break it open.” Says Mark. He walks to the back of the ute and I can hear him going through the tool box, he returns with a big hammer and a large cold chisel. “This'll work.” He says placing the cold chisel in the gap of the doors against the latch. “Okay, move out the way.” he says still holding the cold chisel he starts hitting that back of it with his hammer until the chisel gets jammed enough that it stays in place without having to be held. Mark steps back a bit, lines up the chisel and swings as hard as he can, striking the back of the chisel and smashing the latch out of the door. “Try opening it now mate.” He says to me, I wedge my crowbar back into the gap and force the doors open about 100mm. One of the zombies puts its face to gap in the door and starts trying to bite us through it. I've got this one.” I say, I step back, lift my crowbar up and slam the flat end through the gap in the door and through the zombies left eye, I slide the bar back out as the zombie falls to the floor. “Nice” Says Mark. I look at him and smile. “Help me slide these doors open, but be ready for that other 'Z'.” I Say trying not to laugh at the look on Marks face. We grab one door each from in the gap and pull the doors open, as soon as they're open wide enough the second zombie manages to get halfway out. “Let me take this one.” Yells Mark and he smashes his crowbar into the zombies skull 3 times until it's head is mush, he looks at me with a big grin. “I'm worried about you brah.” I say with a smile on my face and we continue to open the doors.
We open the doors all the way, check to make sure our shotguns are loaded, sling them over our shoulders and step inside over the two zombie corpses on the floor. “Stay frosty brah. Only use your gun if you have to.” Whispers Mark as we creep inside, I look at him, nod and signal that I'll check the doctor's office, I go right, through the door that leads to the doctors waiting room on the practice side of the shop, Mark stays in the pharmacy and starts getting all the medicine and first aid supplies that are on the list Sandy gave us.
I walk into the waiting room and look around, I can hear something from down the hallway towards the assessment rooms, as I get halfway down the hallway a zombie comes out of the room on my left as I walk past. I can hear it behind me I turn around and slam my crowbars hooked end into its skull, then I push it off with my foot, it falls to the floor dead. I turn around and walk to the end of the hallway and go to open the door, but it’s locked. “Oi Mark can you hear me?” I yell out. “Yeah mate, you all good?” he yells back. “All good mate, I'm going to unlock a door with my shotty.” I yell back. “Yeah copy that mate.” he replies. I step back, swing my shotgun off of my shoulder, place the barrel close to the door knob and squeeze the trigger. 'bang' the shotgun blows the door knob clean off, I crank the lever of the shotgun dispensing the spent shell and loading another into the chamber ready for whatever might be on the other side. I take a step back and push the door open with my foot. I look into the darkish room, all I can see is a guy sitting in a chair behind a large solid timber desk with his head leaning backwards over the back of the chair and his arms dropped by his side, blood splatter on the ceiling and wall behind him. The rest of the room is empty with the exception of a filing cabinet in the right hand corner near the window that is high up in the wall and covered with blinds, two arm chairs on my side of the desk and a large wooden bookcase on the left side wall. I walk over to the desk and see a note and a map on the desk. I walk around to the back of the desk next to the dead guy who I've now realised was the doctor. I see a short bolt action rifle on the ground by the doctors right foot under the desk, I grab it and check if it has any ammo in it, then I grab the note off the desk and the map. “What did you find?” Asks Mark who walks up the hallway steps over the dead zombie and into the office with me. “A note, or letter or something and a map. Oh and this guy and his gun.” I say “What's the letter say?” Asks Mark?” “I don't know. It's too dark in here to read properly, I'll read it at the car, did you get everything we need?” I Ask “Yeah everything Sandy wrote down I grabbed, along with some other shit we might need.” He says as we walk out of the doctors office and to the car.
