Zombie An Aussie Apocalypse - Book 1

by Adam Smith

  Mark pulls up in the truck next to where Fiona and I are waiting, he gets out of the truck with his shotgun and walks over to me. “Have you been inside yet?” He asks me. “Nah mate, I was waiting for you.” I reply. “Well let’s get in there and make sure it’s clear.” Says Mark, I agree with him and we walk to the front door of the two-storey beach house, corrugated iron sheets running horizontally with an upstairs balcony that appears to run most of the way around the house, downstairs the house sits on stilts slightly higher than the ground, with a verandah and deck with handrails the entire way around the house. On the left-hand side of the house connected by a covered walkway, amongst the scrub is a shed with two roller doors on it. We walk up the steps to the front door, I put the key in, unlocking the door we open it and walk inside. A big open room with a large kitchen on the right hand side with windows looking out over the ocean, a door in the middle of the wall leading out onto the deck, which is a large outdoor area with a set of stairs onto the beach, a dining table in the front right corner of the room, a pool table in the middle with a dart board on the back wall, there’s couches on the left side of the room with a large tv on a cabinet against the wall. Directly to the left of the door is a staircase and a small room. “Let’s check this level first mate, then we’ll go upstairs.” I say to Mark, we enter the main living room and I head straight for the room on the left, I open the door and take a look inside, it’s a laundry and toilet, with a door in the back that appears to lead out onto the covered walkway to the shed. “Let’s go upstairs.” Says Mark. We walk up the stairs, at the top we turn right, there’s a wide hallway with windows on the left hand side with a door at the end, and 3 doors on the right. We walk down the hallway a few steps and open the first door, looking inside we see it’s a bedroom with a walk in robe and double bed, a window and door in the back wall leading out onto the balcony, another door inside the room. We open it and walk through, it takes us into a bathroom with a door on our left that leads back into the hallway and a door in front of us, I look to my right and see a shower a bath a toilet in it’s own small room and a double vanity with mirror. We walk through the next door and it leads into another bedroom, virtually a mirror image of the first room, we walk out into the hallway and up to the last door, we open it and walk in. A huge open bedroom with a king size bed against the wall on the left, big sliding doors on the back wall that lead onto the balcony, a desk on the wall to the right, we go in and turn right, then turn right again into the open door, through the walk in robe and into the master bathroom. Toilet on the right in its own room double vanity in front of us and shower to the left. “Shotgun this room.” Yells Mark. “Ok mate.” I say. We walk out onto the balcony and see a spiral staircase down to the large outdoor area below us. We head down it and out to the front where the girls are waiting for us. Fiona with some beers in her hands looks at us and says. “Tell me it’s everything I hope it is.” “Best you open those beers so we can celebrate.” I say. “I’ve already claimed the master bedroom room.” Says Mark. “There’s two other nice rooms upstairs. You girls can have one each and I’ll take the couch.” I say. “That’s okay Smithy. I’ll be crashing in Marks room.” Says Sandy with a cheeky smile. “Ok then.” I say. We crack open our beers and have a cheers to our new home. “I’m going to check out the shed and see if I can get the power on.” I say, “I’m going to start getting our shit inside and get set up.” Says Sandy, “I’ll help you mate.” Says Mark.

  Fiona and Sandy start taking stuff inside to get the house set up the way they want. Mark and I walk over to the shed, unlock the padlocks on the doors and open them. We walk inside and check that it’s clear of zombies. I walk to the generator in the back of the shed, it’s inside it’s own casing to keep it quiet, I open the door and check it’s safe to start. We fill it with diesel and fire it up, it starts first try, we close the door of its protective case and have more of a look around the shed. I can see all sorts of fishing gear, crab nets, cray pots, 2 small kayaks ropes, a lot of random beach house items, a workbench, large toolbox and something in the corner under a cover, I walk over and pull back the cover, two oldish A.T.V bikes, I look at Mark and we both laugh, we walk out of the shed and close the doors behind us, we walk inside the house where the girls are in the kitchen area talking and laughing. “The power is on, good job boys.” Says Fiona. “I’m going to unload the truck and go into town.” I say. Fiona looks at me with a shocked look on her face and says. “What are you talking about? We only just got here.” “Um, Why mate?” Asks Mark. “We’ve got an awesome place here, and I want to keep it that way, I saw a fencing and rural hardware supply yard in town the other day. I want to get some fencing materials and make this place safe.” I say in reply. “I understand that, but why today? Why not tomorrow?” Asks Fiona in frustration. “Tomorrow might be too late, it’s only lunch time, if I go now I can be back before dark and that way tomorrow we can get a boundary fence up around the house and shed to protect us, after that we can make a bigger fence around a larger area” I say. “Yeah mate, fuck it I’m in.” Says Mark. “Sweet mate, we need to unload the truck where it is and get a move on as quick as possible.” I say, we all walk outside and unload the truck. “Please be careful and quick.” Says Fiona and hugs me. “We will be.” I say and get in truck with Mark. We head back down the track, onto the main road and begin the hour and a bit journey to town. “So what do we need to make this fence?” Asks Mark. “Rapid set cement, posts, wire, gates, wheelbarrows, shovels, anything you can think of that we might need to build anything with mate, the more we grab now the fewer trips we have to make in here.” I say. “You seem pretty dead set on this whole securing our new home idea mate, what’s the deal?” Mark asks me as we fly down the road. “Think about it, we hit the mother fucking jackpot with this house mate, we need to keep it safe and secure from zombies or any living person that might want to take it from us.” I say. “Yeah you have a good point there mate.” Says Mark.

  About 10 minutes from town and Mark says to me. “I’m all loaded mate and yours is ready as well.” “Cheers mate, we’ll get this done as quick as we can” I say. “What if all this shit won’t fit on our truck mate?” Asks Mark. “We’ll just have to ‘acquire’ another vehicle.” I say with a smile. “Fuck, there’s a few.” I say as I slow the truck down grab my shotgun and lean out the window. Bang! I fire one handed a spray of blood and the zombie hits the ground, I bring my shotgun back inside and Mark leans out of his window. “I’ve got this one.” He yells, he lines up the zombie and squeezes the trigger, the shot echoes through the cab of the truck, chunks of flesh fly from the zombies body. Mark reloads and fires again, this time hitting the zombie in the face, it falls backwards onto the hot bitumen. “Yeah boy!” He yells as we turn right into the main street of the town, we drive for a short time then pull up to the hardware yard. “Gates locked. Do you see anymore zombies”? I ask. “Nah mate, not right now.” Says Mark, he gets out of the truck walks to the gate, places his shotgun barrel on the lock and pulls the trigger, the shot breaks the lock away from the chain, Mark swings the gate open and I drive through. “Just close the gate and loop the chain up so it holds.” I yell out of the window, I drive into the yard, around the back of the shed and park next to some of the materials we need for the fence, I get out and have a look around to make sure the area is clear. “I don’t see any more in here mate.” Says Mark as he walks up to me. “Yeah I think we’re clear.” I say in reply. “Let’s load up all this shit here first, then we’ll go inside and grab everything else we need mate.” I say to Mark, we begin loading up the rolls of wire, gates and posts.

  “That’s the last roll from this stack mate.” Says Mark, I securely tie off all the materials and walk around the truck. “We’ve got a few km’s of fence here I reckon mate, we just need cement and hardware now.” I say, we start walking towards the shed to go inside and grab what we need when I hear something, I look at the gate then say to Mark with slight concern. “Um Brah! How wel
l did you secure the gate”? “Pretty good, why?” Says Mark. “That’s why!” I say and point at the gate, where a group of zombies is trying to push through the gate to get to us. “We gotta kill them before it gives way.” I yell as I run back to the truck, grab the bag of guns and ammo then run to the gate with Mark, we stop about 10 metres back from the gate and start firing, a hail of hot lead flies into the pack of zombies, brains and bits of zombie flying off everywhere, shell casings and empty cartridges hit the floor around our feet. “Gotta reload.” I yell, I start reloading. Click. “I’m out as well.” Yells Mark, he starts reloading as I finish, I start firing again, more zombies fall on the ground. Mark starts firing until we both run out of ammo again, we reload then walk to the fence where there’s only 3 left standing. I walk right up to the fence put the barrel of my .44 mag rifle in the eye of one of the zombies and squeeze the trigger, its head explodes. “Brutal!” Yells Mark, he lines up and fires 2 rounds into the zombie in front of him, I walk to the last zombie, look over my sights into its undead face, the whole world appears to go silent and in slow motion, I stare at the zombie, eyes pure black, blood on its mouth and neck, the smell of rotting flesh in the hot sun, fresh burnt gunpowder and dust in the air, the eerie silence of a ghost town, disrupted by the sound of a .44 mag round being fired through the forehead of a zombie, the blood spray from its head, the sound of its body hitting the floor. Suddenly, I’m back. “Bring that truck over here and get ready to leave, I’m going around the back to get that ute we spotted in the yard and load it with all the other shit I need. You stay here and keep an eye out, I’ll go inside alone and yell if I need help.” I say to Mark as I walk past him to the bag of guns on the floor. I start reloading and walk to the main building of the hardware yard, I walk up to the door and kick it open. I walk inside and look around for the keys to the ute, I grab them from the counter, walk over to the big roller door and open it up, I can hear the truck running so I know we’re ready to leave, I grab the ute and pull it up inside the loading area of the hardware store. “Mark! Come help me lift this shit.” I yell. Mark walks over and asks me “What are we getting mate”? “all of that cement.” I say and point to a pallet of rapid set concrete.

  As we finish loading the cement into the ute Mark says, “Is that all we need mate?” “Yeah pretty much, there’s a few other things I want, but I can grab them.” I Reply, “No worries mate I’ll go and get the gates open, so we can get out of here. Just hurry up eh!” Says Mark and he walks off towards the truck and gate. I’m loading up a variety of different goods that I want when I hear two shots ring out. I quickly run outside. “We’ve got a problem.” Yells Mark as I get to him at the truck, “there’s at least 30 of them coming mate.” Says Mark as he shoulders his rifle. “Fuck it, just get in the truck and get out of here, I’ll get the ute and catch up.” I say as I turn and run back to the ute, I jump in the oldish 4x4 tray back ute, start it up and drive out of the shed towards the gate, I can see Mark driving out in the truck, but he isn’t turning. “Fuck me” I say to myself as Mark ploughs into the pack of zombies. He turns the truck around and comes flying back towards the pack again, slamming into them blood spraying everywhere skulls getting crushed, the truck is coming straight for me. “Fuck!” I yell, Mark turns at the last second and pulls up next to me in a cloud of dust. I hear gunshots ring out, I get out of the ute and run towards what’s left of the pack firing as Mark keeps firing and taking out zombies. “I’m out.” He yells “Same mate.” I say back, “Fuck this, there’s only three left.” Says Mark as he walks to the closest zombie and smashes it in the face with the stock of his rifle, it falls over, he starts smashing it in the head with his stock on the ground until it’s dead. I walk to the next zombie and hit it in the face in the same fashion, it falls backwards and smashes its head hard on the bitumen and stays there, I stomp on it’s head just to be sure, brains ooze out of its skull. Mark looks at me and laughs. “Watch this.” He says, he leans down and grabs a large rock from the ground as I reload, he throws it at the zombie hitting it in the face. “Ha ha, stupid fucking thing.” He laughs. I line it up and pull the trigger, killing it. “Let’s go mate.” I say and walk back to the ute. “Well that was exciting!” Yells Mark, “It sure was.” I say. We get in the vehicles and drive back to our new house.

  We get back to the house with a few hours of sunlight left in the day, the girls come out to see us just as we are getting out of the vehicles. “Glad to see that you’re okay.” Says Sandy, “Anything happen out there”? Asks Fiona. “ha ha yep, it was exciting, we’ll tell you about it later.” Says Mark, “Okay then.” Says Fiona slightly confused. “We’re going to get this fence started now.” I say, I hand Fiona a bag of cordless power tool batteries and chargers, “Can you put these on charge for me please?” I ask Fiona. “Yeah no worries.” Says Fiona, I thank her and kiss her on the cheek. “I’ll get you guys some water.” Says Sandy and she walks inside with Fiona, meanwhile Mark and I set about starting the first fence around our new home. “If we start from the side of the shed, we can run it out past the entrance track, down towards the water, across the ocean side of the house, back up behind the house and then connect back beside the shed.” I say, “So, a big square mate?” Laughs Mark, “Yeah a big square, that’s easier to explain.” I laugh, “What about gates?” Asks Mark, “We should put in two, one here on the driveway, and one down at the ocean side for access direct to the beach.” I reply, “Sounds good mate, let’s get started.” Says Mark.

  “Guys! Come on in for dinner.” Yells Sandy. “In a minute.” Mark yells back. “Seriously it’s getting dark and you’ve been out here for hours, come on!” yells Sandy again, then she walks back inside. “Yeah let’s go mate, that’s enough for today.” I say. “You’re right mate, guess I just want to get it finished.” Says Mark, “We’ll get started first thing in the morning mate, should be able to get the whole lot finished tomorrow.” I say, as we walk inside and lock the door behind us. “How much did you get done?” Asks Fiona, “All of the posts on this side are in, we should be finished by tomorrow night.” I reply, “Well that’s good, now sit down and have some pizza.” Says Sandy, we all sit down at the table and start eating, “Anyone want a beer?” I say, standing up and walking over to the fridge. “Yes please.” Is the unanimous answer from the table. “What room did you choose Fiona?” I ask. “The second one, so you are closest to the stairs.” She replies. “Okay, I might sleep down here on the couches tonight, and keep an eye out.” I say. “No! I’d prefer it if we barricade the doors and stairs and we all sleep up top.” States Fiona. “ha ha. Told!” Laughs Mark. “Woah, okay miss, fair enough, I’ll sleep up top.” I say. “Does the hot water work”? Asks Mark. “I was just thinking the same thing mate.” I say, “Yes it does.” Say both the girls at once, “But there’s only the 3 rain water tanks outside, so we can’t just use water as we please.” Says Fiona. “Yep no worries, I am going for a shower then to bed, thanks for dinner, I’ll clean up in the morning.” I say and walk off to the stairs, then take a shower, the first hot shower since the outbreak started. Refreshed and clean I lay on my bed thinking about the last few days, as this is the first time I’ve had a chance to reflect. I smile as I think back, but I’m not sure why.

  Next thing I know, it’s light as I open my eyes and look around my bedroom, I hear the door slowly open and Fiona walks in, she lays down next to me. “Morning” I say, “Morning” She replies, “time to finish the fence I guess.” I say back. Fiona laying next to me looking at me says. “I hope this is the last place we need to find, I don’t want to be running for this entire apocalypse.” She says. “Don’t worry, it will be. I’ll make sure of that.” I say to her, she smiles at me, kisses me on the forehead then gets up and says, “The kettle is boiled, and the toast is on.” She smiles at me then walks out of the room and down stairs, I get up, take a piss, clean my face and head down stairs to the kitchen where Mark is eating some cereal, drinking his coffee, I sit down with him and he sa
ys to me. “I’m sore all over from digging yesterday.” We both laugh, “Yeah, that’ll happen if you’re a pussy.” I say with a smile. He just looks back at me, flips me off and laughs. “Let’s go finish this fence then eh?” I say, we walk outside and get to work.

  With one last twist of the pliers on the tie wire, we finish the fence. “We’re done my friend.” I say to Mark as I neaten up the last piece of wire. “1800 high cyclone mesh fence around our entire home, double supports on all the corners and gates, all that’s left is the barb on top and another fence further out.” I say pleased with myself. “C’mon mate. One is enough for now, I just wanna’ get drunk!” yells Mark and high 5’s me laughing. “Oh wow, all done.” Says Sandy, her and Fiona are walking down to the back gate nearest the ocean where Mark and I are standing. “Here, we brought beers for you.” Fiona says, handing us some icy cold beers. “Cheers.” Mark and I say. “I feel safer already. So what other plans do we have for our new home?” Says Fiona standing next to me, she puts her arm around my waist. “I’m going to get a boat. So we can catch seafood. But I want a big boat, maybe we need to build our own jetty!” I say excitedly. “Yes! I like it, but maybe get a smaller towable boat first, then we can build your jetty later.” Says Mark laughing. “Then some more fencing further out, so that we can grow food and farm some animals.” I say. “Okay you two, settle down, all in good time.” Laughs Sandy. “I’m going for a shower, beers after that anyone?” I ask. “Good idea brah.” Says Mark, we all walk inside, when Fiona says. “You never told us what was in the shed.” “Oh, some fishing gear, kayaks, a workbench, shit like that, and a quad bike.” I say, “Oh, that’s pretty awesome.” Says Fiona, we walk inside and lock the doors, I grab a beer and head upstairs to take a shower, the hot water rolls across my skin, I can hear music start down stairs, laughter and the sound of pool balls hitting each other, I smile, get out of the shower. As I am about to get dressed and head down stairs, my door opens, Fiona walks in and shuts it behind her, she walks over, wraps her arms around me and starts kissing me, we fall onto the bed, and it’s on.