by Adam Smith
Silence is upon us all as we walk inside the house, “Could be in for a storm tonight, judging by the clouds outside.” I say. “So, what the actual fuck just happened?” Asks Sandy. “Well, that lady was clearly insane and you two idiots clearly had no idea.” Laughs Fiona. “That was brutal Fiona. Just with no hesitation though.” Says Mark. “At least that explains what all the other zombies wandering along the beach were doing. No doubt we are going to get a few more here now.” I say and grab a beer from the fridge. “nothing out of the ordinary for this day an age though is it?” Says Fiona. As she stares at me while I crack open my beer and take a drink. “What?” I ask. “Where's mine you jerk”? She says laughingly. I laugh, open the fridge and grab a beer out for her. “Anyone else want one?” I ask. “Yeah mate.” Says Mark and Sandy.
The flash of lighting and the rumble of thunder in the evening sky as we sit on the balcony drinking beers and looking at a map I found in the house. “Look at this guys, if we're here, then that town is only about 60 kilometres down the coast from us.” I say pointing at the map. “That's probably where the zombies and your fucking insane mate came from today.” Says Mark laughingly, “Yeah it's possible. We should head down there and see if there's anything or anyone left.” I say. “Guys, how are we going to get there and back in a day? If you look at the roads on the map, we have to drive inland a long way to get back out to the road that leads into that town.” Says Sandy. “We can take the boat.” Mark replies. “And if there is anything left, how will you bring it home on that little boat?” Asks Fiona. “We'll just acquire ourselves a large boat, perhaps a fishing or charter boat.” Laughs Mark in response. “That's a fucking brilliant plan. Just acquire a bigger boat.” I laugh. “Sorted then! Cheers!” Says Mark and he raises his beer. Rain begins to fall and we stay up for a while talking shit and drinking before turning in for the night.
The storm rages all night and is still going in the morning when we get up. As we all gather in the kitchen for a meeting and breakfast. “Well I guess mother nature has a few ideas about us heading to town on the ocean today. Oh well, just have to go once this storm passes.” I say to the others.
A few days pass and we wake to clear skies and a calm beautiful ocean. Sitting around the kitchen table eating breakfast when Sandy says, “Today's the day we go to town guys.” “Yes it is!” I state. “We just need to get some gear together and we can head out.” Says Mark. We get up from the table, grab some guns, ammo, beers, food and other supplies for our trip down the coast. Loading all the gear into the boat as the Girls come down from the house to meet us. “Okay guys, we're ready to go, the house and gates are all secure.” Says Fiona. “Sweet, jump in and we'll head off.” I say. The girls climb into the boat, Mark and I push it out and jump in. I start the motor and head for the town. “How long will this take?” Asks Sandy. “Two hours or so, Maybe.” I say, somewhat unsure myself. “You're wearing a watch mate. Time it.” Says Fiona to Sandy laughing. “Fine I will then you jerks.” Laughs Sandy in response.
“Look! There's the dock!” I yell to the others. I slow the boat down and we cruise into within 50m of the dock and boat harbour. I spin around on my chair and look at the others. “Keep your eyes peeled I'll cruise in slowly and we can tie the boat off and take a look around.” I say. I slowly start steering the boat into the mouth of the small harbour past a few large fishing and recreational boats and yachts, we make it to the jetty closest to a small shed on the shore, I pull the boat up to the pylons and Mark ties it up securely. “Who wants to stay here, and who wants to come with me?” I ask as I get out of the boat. “Why don't we all go?” Asks Fiona. “Yeah we can do, if you want.” I Say. “Yeah that's a good idea.” Agrees both Mark and Sandy. I help the girls out of the boat, Mark hands me a bag of guns and ammo then jumps up onto the jetty with us. We all grab our chosen weapons, I grab a backpack with some tools and stuff, we walk towards the shed. There's a padlock on the door, so we continue past the shed to a gate leading out onto the street. “It's locked mate.” Says Mark quietly, I take my backpack off, kneel down, open it up and grab out some small bolt cutters, passing them to Mark I say quietly “here cut the chain.” He cuts the chain and pushes the gate open, we walk out onto the empty street, pulling the gate shut behind us and looping the chain through to make it look like it's still locked. The town is eerily quiet, not even any birds making noise. “I'm going over there.” I say, pointing to 'Big AL'S everything outdoor' shop across the street. “Okay mate, we're going up to the supermarket.” Says Mark, with his hand on Sandy's shoulder “Well I'm not staying here alone, I'm coming with you Smithy.” Says Fiona. “Anything goes wrong let off two shots quickly then wait 3 seconds then let off two more.” I say. Everyone agrees and we move off in opposite directions up the main street of the small town. Fiona and I walk into the 'everything outdoor' shop and look around. “Pretty empty mate.” Whispers Fiona. “Yeah it sure is. I'm going to look around in the back, wait here. But stay frosty.” I say. “Be careful.” Says Fiona. “Always.” I say winking at her. I walk to the back of the shop and into the store room looking for anything to help us, but it's practically empty. A few full gas bottles some jerry cans, a bit of fishing gear, clothing and some shitty camping furniture is all that's here. “Fiona. Bring a trolley and help me grab some shit.” I say. Fiona walks over to me with a trolley, we load it up with the gas bottles and anything we think could be used. As I'm about to walk out I see a safe behind the counter. “Block your ears sweet cheeks.” I say, I load my shotgun with a single slug, point it at the safes hinges and fire. Blowing the hinges apart, I grab the crowbar from my backpack and pry the safe open, a few thousand dollars in cash and a handgun. “Anything in there?” Asks Fiona. I show her what I've grabbed and we leave the shop, back out onto the main street we look to see if we can see the others. “I can't see them.” Says Fiona. “We should keep going down this way and see if we find anything else good, leave that trolley here, we can get it on the way back.” I say. We continue to walk down the street. “Oh Fuck yeah!” Says Fiona pointing at a bottle shop. “We are so going in there.” She says. Nodding in agreement I walk to the glass doors and look inside. Bang on the door scaring the fuck out of me, a zombified store worker is trying to eat me through the glass. “Pussy. Still getting frightened of theses fucks eh?” Laughs Fiona. “You can kill this one then mate. No guns though.” I say to Fiona, I jam the crowbar between the two glass sliding doors and force them open. The zombie sees me and starts stumbling towards the now open door, it stumbles out into the street as we walk backwards. “You didn't even give me a chance to get a weapon.” Says Fiona, I throw her the small crowbar but she can't catch and it hits the floor. “Good job you fucking spaz.” I say laughing, Fiona grabs the crowbar off the floor laughing and belts the zombie in the jaw, its whole bottom jaw comes flying off, but it keeps walking towards her, she lifts the bar above her head and slams it down onto the zombies cranium, caving it in, the zombie falls to the floor like a sack of potatoes. “Did you seriously just call me a fucking spaz?” Asks Fiona. “I sure did, but you redeemed yourself there.” I say Laughingly. She walks over to me with a big smile on her face and kisses me. “Fuck I'm glad I'm stuck in the middle of this shit with you.” She says. “Same here.” I say with a smile and walk to the doors of the bottle shop. “After you my lady.” I say with one arm out allowing her to enter the shop first. “Why thank you kind sir.” Says Fiona in a shitty British accent as she skips into the shop. “Holy fuck!IT’S STILL FULL!” I yell after walking into the store. My yelling attracts another zombie from the back. I grab a bottle of whisky from the shelf, walk over to the zombie and belt it in the face, the bottle smashes, whisky goes everywhere the zombie hits the floor but isn't dead, I walk backwards a few steps and wait until it lifts it undead head up, I run and kick it in the face with my steel capped boot as if I'm drop punting the winning goal from outside 50 in the AFL grand final. The crunch is almost sickening, the zombie falls to the ground dead. “GOAL!
” I yell. “Seriously mate. You love this shit a little too much I think.” Laughs Fiona while she's grabbing a trolley and loading it with as much alcohol that she can. “We can make a few trips with the trolleys, or I can go find you a ute to bring all that to the dock... Fuck we still need to get a big boat.” I say to Fiona. “Yeah you're right, let's take this and our other trolley back, we can find a suitable boat, then we can continue looting.” Says Fiona with a big smile. “Sounds good mate.” I say in response, before we walk out of the shop I go behind the counter and find a cigar humidor, I open it and fill my backpack with the cigars inside, then I see the cash registers. “Hang on mate. I just want to see if there's any money in here.” I say to Fiona, I use my crowbar to force open the till and clean it out of all the notes. “Why are taking all the money? You can't buy anything.” Says Fiona. I just smile at her and walk out from behind the counter, grabbing the trolley. I say “C'mon let's go see if we can find the others and a boat.” We walk back into the street, grab our other trolley we make out way back to the dock and walk along it looking for a suitable boat. “Oh yeah! This one for sure!” I say excitedly as we walk to the end of 'Jetty B' “That's huge!” Says Fiona. I step onto a very large fishing boat and walk to the cabin. “Keys are still in it!” I yell, I turn the key and it starts up straight away. “This is nice.” Says Fiona as she walks into the cabin with me. “Its only got half a tank though. I bet that shed has the keys to turn on the the fuel pumps at the end of the other jetty.” I say to her. “It wont work without power genius.” She says. “Fuck! Maybe there is something in the shed we can use to access the tanks or a generator for backup during power outages?” I say, quickly turning the boat off I run out of the cabin, grab my crowbar and shotgun, I jump onto the jetty and run down to the shed. “Gotta' get in somehow.” I say out loud, shouldering my shotgun I fire and blow the lock off the door, I kick the door open and step back a few metres. I wait for about a minute but no zombies or people come out of the shed. Fiona walks up behind me and says, “Well, what are you waiting for?” I look at her and agree, we walk inside the shed and look around, there's a counter with a till on it and a few computers. On the left is a big set of sliding doors with an overhead crane that travels outside and over the water in the dock. On the back wall is a door with a sign on it saying 'generator room staff only'. “In there.” I say walking over to the doors, I open them slowly and look inside. It's dark and smells of diesel fumes. “I need a torch.” I say to Fiona. Who's looking around behind the counter, she walks over to me and hands me a small torch. “This was in one of the draws.” She says. I turn the torch on and walk inside the room, making my way around to the control panel of one of two generators in the room, I turn the key and start it up, the lights come on in the shed. I walk to the second generator and start it up but nothing seems to happen once it's running. “Should we see if the pumps are working?” Asks Fiona. “Yeah, there must be a reset switch or an on off switch with a litre counter somewhere, just like in a servo.” I say. We walk over to the counter with the computers on it and look around. “Here.” Says Fiona pointing at two switches next to some display screens. 'pump 1' and 'pump 2' are the labels on the switches. Fiona turns them on and both the display screens turn on and read '0.0L' “That was easy.” She says looking at me. Suddenly the door to the outside opens, we both turn and look at the door with our guns raised. “You guys in here?” Says Mark looking in the door with his shotgun loaded and raised. “Yeah mate. We're in here it's all clear.” I say. “What did you guys find?” Asks Mark as we walk out from behind the counter and meet him and Sandy at the door. “Outdoor shop was empty, a few gas bottles that's it.” Says Fiona. “Yeah we had the same issue in the supermarket, we got what we could though, about two trolleys worth of shitty canned food, lollies and shit like that.” Says Mark. “Well it's not a complete waste mate. We found a bottle shop and it's virtually UN-FUCKING TOUCHED!” I yell “OH FUCK YEAH!” Yells Mark. “Did you get a boat?” Asks Sandy. “We got the best boat ever!” States Fiona. “It's pretty awesome. We just need to drive it over to the other jetty and fill it up, but we need some jerry cans or large tubs to fill up as-well.” I say. “Well what's in the storeroom over there?” Asks Mark pointing at a door in the corner. “I Didn't even see that mate.” I say. “I'll check it out, you get the boat to the fuel pump and I'll meet you up there.” Says Mark. “Agreed, once we're filling her up you and I can go back to the bottle shop and take what we want.” I say as I walk out the door, I grab one of the two trolleys and head down to the boat with Fiona and Sandy.
We jump on the boat and load all the gear from the trolleys onboard. I start the boat and the girls remove the ropes from the dock, I drive the boat over to the other jetty where the fuel pumps are and try to park the boat gently. Crash! We bang into the dock, the girls fall over, shit on the deck and in the cabin falls over too. “Learn how to drive you fuck head!” Yells Fiona. “Haha are you okay?” I ask “Yeah we're fine.” She replies “We're here though.” I say. “Good Fucking parking dickhead!” I hear Mark yell from the dock as he ties the boat up. I laugh, turning the boat off I make my way outside the cabin and help tie the boat up. “Fuel tank fill point is here, takes diesel tho.” Says Sandy standing at the side of the boat. “Here start filling the boat up please Sandy. When it's full start on these containers and jerry cans thanks. We'll go and get the rest of them from the store room.” Says Mark passing her the fuel nozzle. Mark and I walk down to the shed and return with a few more jerry cans. “We're going to the bottle shop. Any requests?” I ask. “Corona's and a lime tree thanks mate.” Says Fiona winking at me. “Yeah no worries.” I say laughingly, Mark and I head to the bottle shop to fill up the trolleys with what we can. We make a few trips while the girls fuel up, once they've finished we all head back and get some more from the bottle shop. “No limes eh?” Asks Fiona. “Actually there was a house up the other end of the street with citrus trees out the front.” Says Sandy. “Show me where, boys you take the trolleys, we'll be back in a minute.” Says Fiona, she grabs Sandy by the hand and they run up the street.
While we are loading the boat we hear two quick gun shots go off followed by silence, then two more. “Shit mate! They're in trouble.” I state. Mark and I quickly grab some guns and ammo and run down the dock, onto the street and towards the girls. We hear more shots as we run, we come around a corner at the end of the street and see the girls fighting off a small pack of zombies. We open fire and start dropping zombies like they're going out of fashion. “RUN!” Yells Fiona as her and Sandy run past us, we look down the street and see a huge pack of zombies at least 500, “Fuck me.” I say turning to look at Mark. At the same time we both say “RUN” we turn and run after the girls. Fiona is dropping limes as she runs, Mark and I try to pick them up as we run down the street laughing, we round the corner onto the dock. “You take the small boat mate I'll get the new one.” I say to Mark. He jumps into the small boat, starts it, unties it and starts motoring out of the marina into the open ocean, I jump aboard the big boat as the girls are still trying to untie it, I start it and help untie the boat, as we reverse into the middle of the marina we look behind us and see the first few zombies walking through the gate onto the dock. I aim the boat for the open ocean and we make our way out to find Mark waiting for us in the small boat. We drive up to him and I say. “Save the fuel in that one mate, tie this rope to the front of it, lift the motor and jump in here.” Once onboard the big boat Mark throws some limes at Fiona. “Here you dropped something.” He says in hysterical laughter. We make our way back up the coast drinking and talking shit about the morning. “We going to check the pots today?” Asks Mark. “Yeah we should.” I reply. We pull up the pots, collect our bounty from them, do a spot of fishing for a few hours then head into shore. “Are we just going to park this boat on the beach or should we anchor it out here?” I ask. “Anchor it out here and tie a rope to the back of it, then tie that rope off on shore, to keep the front pointed out in-case any wa
ves come.” States Mark. We anchor the boat then jump into the small boat and head for shore. “I'll go and grab a spare fence post that we can use as an anchor point on the shore.” I say as we land on the beach, the girls start unloading some supplies and taking them inside, Mark heads back out to the big boat to grab some more supplies and the rope.
“That should hold it.” I say after I finish banging a fence post into the ground. “Here mate.” Says Mark passing me the rope as he walks up to me. “We should probably get another one and cement it in tomorrow.” I say, “Yeah that's a good idea.” Sates Mark, we high 5 while walking up to the house. “This surviving the apocalypse shit is fucking easy.” Laughs Mark. I just look at him and smile, we walk through the gate, locking it behind us. “Boys! The beers are cold and getting all drunk.” Yells Fiona from the door laughing, we walk inside and she hands us some beers. “So we're cooking for you two tonight.” Says Sandy. “Yes we are, so go have showers and relax.” Says Fiona Smiling, “Do we shower together?” I ask trying not to burst out laughing. “You wish jellyfish, this shit aint cheap.” Says Mark laughingly. “Wow, just wow.” Says Sandy.
