Zombie An Aussie Apocalypse - Book 1

by Adam Smith

  “Well that was awesome.” Says Fiona with a smile, laying next to me, “We should probably go down stairs though, they’ll be wondering where we are.” She says and kisses me, “We can pick up where we left off later.” She giggles, we get up and get dressed, then we head downstairs to join the other two in a game of pool, as we get to the bottom of the stairs, we see that they have decided to make the pool table into their own bed. “Let’s just go back upstairs.” Fiona whispers in my ear, she takes my hand and leads me back up to my room.

  Early morning sun, shines bright through my window and into my eyes, birds outside chirping, insects buzzing, I get up and walk downstairs, into the kitchen, put the kettle on, walk to the toilet to take a leak, back into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, walk outside onto the deck. The morning sun is warm, the ocean looks inviting, the sand is cool and soft on my feet as I walk down to the fence closest to the ocean. “I have to find a sustainable substantial food source. A boat for fish is easy, but milk, eggs things like that. I can grow fruit and veg.” I think to myself. “I need to build a farm.” I say to myself. I turn and walk back inside, everyone else is still asleep. I leave a note on the table saying, ‘gone for supplies, be back soon’ I grab the ute keys, some guns and ammo, I walk outside, get in the ute and head for the town we got the fence supplies from. I pull onto the main road and say to myself excitedly, “there has got to be a boat in this town.” Happily tapping the steering wheel with ‘28 days’ greatest hits blaring from the stereo I fly down the road for town.

  I pull into town, everything looks quiet and empty, I drive up to the camping and fishing shop, stopping right outside the door, I get out of the ute, I grab my shotgun and a pistol. I walk to the door and grab the handle, twist, click, it opens, I walk inside. DING DONG! The doorbell goes off and scares the shit out of me. “Fuck me” I yell and jump backwards pointing my shotgun inside waiting for anyone or any zombies to come out. Nothing. I walk inside and start looking around, there’s a lot of empty shelves and cabinets, all the knives are gone I keep looking around, the flares are also gone along with most of the gas cookers and cooking utensils. As I walk around I see a puddle of liquid on the floor, I lean down and touch it, still wet and cool. “Someone has been here recently.” I whisper to myself. “Hello!” I yell out. No response. I start grabbing all the remaining fishing gear, nets, boating accessories and any other supplies I think I can use, I load it all in the ute, jump in the driver's seat, lock the doors and drive towards the housing area of town. I turn down ‘Abel street’ and see a red station wagon parked out the front of the corner house. “that wasn’t here the other day” I say to myself, I pull the ute up beside the station wagon and get out. Walking up to the car and looking through it, I place my hand on the bonnet, still warm, I quickly look up at the house and see someone peeking through the blinds, I wave at them, show both my hands then slowly walk towards the door. The door opens and there’s a middle aged man with half a head of grey hair standing looking at me. “Who are you?” the man asks. “I’m Smithy mate. Who are you?” I say in reply as I stop walking, putting my hands down by my side with my right hand on my pistol. “My name is Bryce, my family and I are heading to the capital for answers, we came from the desert, we thought we could stay here in this house, is it yours?” Asks Bryce “Nah mate not my place, I’m just looking for supplies.” I say. “Oh I see. Well make sure you’re careful out here Smithy.” Says Bryce. “Why do you say that mate?” I ask as a small child comes to the door and hugs Bryce’s leg, “Go inside Liam, I’ll be in in a minute.” Bryce says to the child. “Well you see Smithy when we came through a road house a few hours from here, it looks like someone murdered the unarmed owners. There were 7 bodies I think, but only 2 looked like zombies.” Says Bryce. “No worries mate I’ll stay safe. I’m going to keep moving mate. You and your family stay safe.” I say as I walk back to the ute. “God bless you, and stay safe my friend.” Says Bryce as I get in the ute. “God, you reckon.” I say to myself and drive up the street, I drive through a few streets when I spot a nice boat down the side of a large house. “I knew it. Wooh!” I yell to myself. I reverse down the driveway to hitch up the boat, I get out of the ute and look over the boat. ‘6800 fish master’ is written on the side of it. I climb into it and have a look around, massive outboard motor, cray winch, sounder, GPS, lights, flares, everything! “Fuck me. What a score!” I yell aloud. I jump out of the boat and hitch it to the tow ball of the ute. I can hear someone walking up the driveway, I look up from what I’m doing, it’s only a zombie, I grab my shotgun and walk to the zombie, line it up and squeeze the trigger, Click! “What the fuck.” I yell. I step back and reload, line up again and squeeze the trigger, bang, there goes its head. I laugh to myself and jump in the ute, as I’m driving back to the house I check to make sure I’m not being followed by Bryce.

  Meanwhile at the house. “Where’s Smithy?” Fiona asks Mark and Sandy who are at the kitchen table. “He’s gone out.” Says Mark and hands Fiona my note. “What the fuck is this shit! Why didn’t he tell anyone? What if he’s dead or some shit!” Yells Fiona. “Calm down, he’ll be fine.” Says Mark “Here have something to eat.” Says Sandy. “Oh my god, Whatever.” Says Fiona angrily and sits down. “Where do you think he went?” asks Sandy. “Fuck knows.” Says Mark. “I hope he’s home soon, I want to see what he’s got for us.” Says Sandy excitedly. Beep beep. “He’s back!” yells Fiona. Everyone gets up and runs outside.

  As I pull up to the gate I beep the horn twice then wait a few seconds, I see everyone come out of the house. “Open the gate brah!” I yell to Mark, he runs over and opens the gate for me, as I drive in past him he shuts the gate, and I park out the front of the house. “What the fuck is wrong with you!?” yells Fiona as I get out of the ute. “Thank fuck you’re okay.” She says and gives me a hug. “I’m fine, Actually I am better than fine, look what I got us.” I say. We walk to the boat, “THIS IS AWESOME!” yells Mark. “What time did you go?” Asks Sandy. “Sun up.” I laugh. “I met this god loving bloke while I was there. He said he was going to the capital for answers, he also said he found our roadhouse and that there are some messed up people out here now.” I say. “Do they know where we live?” Asks Fiona. “No, and that’s the way we need to keep it, we don’t want people knowing about this place. If you meet people out there keep this place a secret and make sure they don’t follow you home.” I say. “So why do we need to keep this place a secret?” Asks Sandy. “Yeah, I mean if those people didn’t want to hurt you, wouldn’t we want to accept them here to our nirvana?” Asks Fiona. “I guess it might be okay to have more people mate.” Says Mark, “More people means more food, more water, more everything. I’m not saying that we abandon everyone who’s out there, we just need to be really wary of who’s out there.” I state “Oh no, I agree with you there. We aren’t just going to start looking for people and bringing back anyone that we feel like, but if the right people come across us in our travels we’re going to have to consider it.” Says Fiona. “Yep, we all in agreement here then?” I ask. “Yes” Everyone replies. “Now that’s sorted, who wants to try out the boat?” Yells Mark. “I think I’m going to stay here, my arm is still sore.” Says Sandy, “Same, you boys have fun.” Says Fiona. I jump in the ute and drive down to the waters edge, ready to launch the boat. Mark comes down to meet me with a heavy looking esky, as I’m finishing loading some of the fishing gear from the ute into the boat, we throw the esky onboard, then launch the boat and head out into the ocean a little way. “We are going to need to catch some bait mate.” Says Mark. He ties some lures onto a few rods, I look at him as we trawl up the coast and say “Cast ‘em out mate, let’s see if there’s anything in this ocean.” “Yeah boy!” Yells Mark as he casts the lines out behind the boat. “Mate, the girls have no idea what they’re missing out on.” I say to Mark as he hands me a beer and sits in the passenger seat of the boat. “Oh well, that’s their loss mate.” He says. All of a sudden one of the rods bends over
and the reel starts screaming. “Fish on brah!” Yells Mark. I put the boat in neutral and run to the rods, Mark grabs the one with the fish on and starts fighting it, I start reeling in the other lures, as I’m winding in the last one, it gets hit. “I’m on!” I yell, and start fighting the fish, I bring mine aboard the boat while Mark is still fighting his. After a bit more of a fight with his fish, Mark lands it on the boat, we look at each other and high 5, then we reset our lines and keep on fishing.

  A few hours of good fishing pass, with many fish on the boat, I turn to Mark and say. “Starting to get a bit late now mate, do you want to close up the escape gaps in the cray pots, bait them up and we can drop them near that reef close to the house?” “Yeah mate, sounds like a plan.” Replies Mark. We set the 2 pots we have onboard and head back to the house, we pull the boat out of the water and park inside the fence. “Did you catch us some dinner”? Asks Sandy, “We sure did.” Says Mark, he passes me down some fish from the boat. “Woah! Look at the size of that one.” Says Sandy. “Yeah, I caught that, not bragging or anything, just saying.” Laughs Mark. “Good job boys.” Says Fiona and she passed Mark and I a beer each. “We’ll clean these down at the water, but we need to keep the fish frames for bait.” I say to Mark. “Good plane mate. Do you want to help girls?” Mark asks. “EW, no way.” Says Sandy, “We’ll make a salad or something or just get drunk instead.” Laughs Fiona and the girls head inside.

  Mark and I head inside with a big pile of fresh fish fillets and set them down on the table. “I’m going to have a shower and get cleaned up, I’ll cook after that.” I say. “Are you going out again tomorrow?” Sandy asks. “Yeah we need to go out in the morning and check our cray pots.” Says Mark. “Pots?” Asks Sandy confused, “They’re just nets basically, made from wood, for catching crays or crabs or anything that goes in them really.” Laughs Mark. “Well I for one am starving, so I am cooking now.” Says Fiona, she gets everything ready to cook, “Yeah he won't be long.” Says Mark, “He’ll come running when he smells it’s cooked mate.” Laughs Fiona, “You stink Mark, go have a shower.” Says Sandy. “Okay, but do not eat my fish without me.” Says Mark as he grabs a beer and heads off for a shower. Then we eat dinner and head to bed.

  “Oi, wake up dickhead.” Says Mark as he shakes me and wakes me up. “What the fuck brah.” I say “let’s go and check the pots and do some fishing.” Says Mark. “Would you two idiots shut the fuck up. I’m trying to sleep.” Says Fiona as she rolls over, “Ok mate, I’ll be down in a second, go get the boat ready or something.” I say, sitting up on the side of the bed, I get up get my shit together then head downstairs, I walk down to the kitchen and Mark hands me a cup of coffee as he walks past to grab some ammo and guns. I finish my coffee grab my shotgun and a rifle then walk out the door locking it behind me and make my way down to the shore line where Mark is waiting for me in the boat. We head out to check the pots, the first one comes up over the side. “mate we got some in here.” I say as we lift the pot into the boat, we open it up and grab out the crays and crabs, we head for the second one and get a few more from it, “Where should we put the other 4 pots that I grabbed from the shed?” Asks Mark. “anywhere along this reef seems like it should be okay mate.” I say in reply. After dropping the rest of the pots into the water we begin trolling along the coast trying to get some more fish, after about 20 minutes I point to the shore and yell to Mark. “Mate, take a look at this would you!” “Fuck yeah brah! Wanna’ go and get some morning zombie kills?” he says. “Yeah, they’re heading towards the house, so I guess we should take care of them.” I say, we start heading for the shore line. “I’ll run it up on the sand about 50 metres behind them mate, you get ready to end them.” I say. “About 8 of ‘em.” Says Mark as we beach the boat, Mark jumps out, grabs the anchor and throws it out onto the sand to secure boat. “Shotties at dawn.” I say grabbing two shotguns and a bag of shells from the boat, I jump out and walk up to Mark, passing him his shotgun, the zombies notice us and start walking towards us. We walk to within 20 metres of the zombies. “Look at them mate, they’ve got bullet holes in their bodies and limbs.” Says Mark. “Yeah I can see that, very strange.” I say. We shoulder our shotguns and open fire. Shots ring out, blood mist, flesh and brain matter flies into the air, the smell of rotting flesh, fresh burnt gunpowder and morning sea air, the sand turns red, we continue to fire until there’s no zombie left standing. “I love a good zombie kill session.” Says Mark as he takes a deep breath of the now scent filled air. “I wonder how long ago these fuckers got shot at.” I say. “Looks like they’ve come from down that way.” Says Mark as we inspect the corpses. “But why would they just wander up this direction.” I say. “Maybe they were following someone who ducked off of the beach and they just kept on walking up this way.” Says Mark. “Maybe.” I reply, “Should we go for a walk and see if we can see anything mate?” Asks Mark. “Nah mate, if they were following someone in this direction, they’ll be at our house very soon, if not already. We need to head back and check things out.” I say. We finish searching the bodies then jump in the boat and head back to the house. As we pull the boat up onto the shore the girls come running down to the gate. “We heard shots, what the fuck happened?” yells Fiona. “We found a small pack of zombies on the beach walking this way, we’re not sure if someone was running from them and heading this way.” I say back as Mark and I secure the boat anchor to the beach and pull the boat ashore. “We need to get inside, lock the doors and keep an eye out for a while.” Says Mark, we all run to house locking the gates and doors.

  “I’m going to walk the fence line guys. Stay here and keep an eye on me.” I say, I grab some guns and walk outside. “Here, arm yourselves.” Says Mark, handing out some guns and ammo to the girls. “We’ll go upstairs and set up as lookouts. You two keep an eye out of each side and I'll walk around keeping Smithy in sight.” Says Mark. They all head upstairs and take positions.

  I’m walking around the fence line when I get a strange feeling that I’m being watched, that someone is close. “Paranoid” I think to myself, I scan the bush behind the shed beyond our fence, I can hear noise coming from the bush. “Is it the wind or animals.” I think to myself, it becomes eerily quiet, no birds chirping, no bugs buzzing, there is definitely something there, but where, I can’t see anything as I focus on the bush again when I stop at the front of the shed just shy of the fence line, looking around the silent bush I can’t hear anything. “It’s not an animal, animals aren’t this quiet, pigs wouldn’t be scared and roos wouldn’t stop.” I think to myself. I look further up the fence line and can see disturbed soil next to one of the posts. “Shit someone might be inside.” I say to myself and quickly move to the fence checking the ground inside the fence for signs of someone, but nothing. Crunch, rustle. I quickly look back to bush behind the shed and try to focus on the noise, but again it’s silent and I can’t see anything. “Psst, oi.” I spin around and see Mark in the upstairs window he’s pointing at the corner of the fence near the access track. I quickly move up there and look around but still can’t see anything. On one knee I spin around and look back to the window to get Marks’ attention, I signal for him to come down to me, he acknowledges it and disappears from the window. With my back to the fence I quickly scan the compound. Suddenly I hear breathing from behind me, I get a rush of adrenaline through my body, everything seems to become slow motion, I spin around to face the fence whilst still kneeling and see a woman with her fingers through the fence and her face pinned into the wire, my heart skips for a second and she whispers to me “Please help us.” I just stare at her with no words. I can hear Mark running up behind me, he starts yelling. “Who are you, how many others are with you?” he points his shotgun at the lady, I stand up continuing to stare at her, she stands up still silent, looking at me, she again whispers, “please, help us.” Mark lowers his shotgun and says. “How many people are with you?” “Just the three of us.” She replies. “Where are the others?” I ask. “Behind me.�
�� She Says. “Where?” Says Mark, “It’s okay, you can come out now. See I told you they aren’t evil.” Calls out the lady, she turns around then turns back to face us. Mark and I look at each other confused. She looks at Mark and says. “Have you seen the evil people?” Before we can reply, she starts laughing and says to us. “These are my friends. Don’t be afraid, say hello.” “Lady there is no one fucking there!” Says Mark, she stares at Mark and calmly says. “Say hello.” “Lady there is no one fucking standing with you.” Says Mark harshly. “How dare you disrespect me and my friends, say hello! Fuck you, you’re going to die tonight. I am going to kill you. Don’t you tell me they’re not real!” Screams the lady she grabs the fence and starts shaking it. “What the actual fuck brah!” I say to Mark, we both take a step backwards from the fence, the lady still screaming and shaking the fence. Suddenly she stops and kneels down. “It’s okay, he’s just playing, he can see you, don’t cry sweetie please don’t cry.” Says the lady, she stands up and looks at Mark then starts screaming and shaking the fence again. “Now look what you’ve done. You must say sorry!” she screams. Suddenly she stops and walks down the fence line saying. “Savannah? My baby. Oh my Savannah look at you, my precious Savannah.” Fiona walks straight up to the lady who’s still babbling on, looking at her, “Savanah you have to help me us.” Says the lady Fiona puts her pistol to the ladies head and without hesitation, pulls the trigger, the ladies head snaps backwards, blood flies into the air and her body crumples onto the floor against the fence. “Bitch was bat shit crazy. Plus now we have a real problem, follow me.” Says Fiona. We follow her to the corner of the fence on the back side of the shed. “I spotted them a few minutes ago, that crazy bitch yelling has got their attention.” Says Fiona, Sandy comes running over to us with a bag full of ammo. “Kill em all!” Laughs Mark, we all put our gun barrels through the fence wire and start firing into the pack of zombies that is wandering around the bush just beyond the fence line. The ensuing fire goes on for 10 odd minutes, when we see no more movement. “What the fuck just happened?” Yells Sandy. “Don’t worry about that now, we need to get inside, all that gunfire will attract something.” Yells Mark. We grab all of our stuff and head around to the front of the house. “Mate we better grab the boat and bring it inside.” I yell to Mark. We walk down to the beach to bring the boat and ute inside the compound, the girls keep an eye out.