by Adam Smith
The hallway turns right and there’s another bedroom door on the right hand wall. “Looks clear so far.” Says Mark as we head past the bedroom door and turn left, there’s a bedroom on the right a toilet straight in front of us and a bathroom on the left. We head back outside. “It’s clear.” Says Mark. “All the doors lock, should be fine for tonight.” I say. “After tonight guys, I think we should start heading for Perth tomorrow.” Says Sandy. “Why?” We all ask. “I had family there. Well not in Perth, just north about fifty kilometres in a beachside estate. I want to know if they’re alive or not.” Sandy replies. “I don’t know how safe it would be to head to Perth.” Says Fiona. “Perhaps we need to find a farm. Like a few hundred odd k’s from the city, we can use it as our base and make day trips in and out of the city as we see fit?” Asks Mark with a smile. “Now that is a good idea.” Says Fiona. “I quite like that idea my self mate.” I say to Mark giving him a rub on the head, I say. “Who’s a good boy?” “That sounds like a great idea.” Says Sandy. “I’m pretty certain that child zombie from this morning was the kid that was with Bryce the other day. I’m going to head over to his house and take a look around. Anyone want to come with me?” I ask “I’m in!” States Fiona. “We might hang back here mate, get some shit together for tonight.” Says Mark with his arm around Sandy. “No worries mate. Keep your radio on.” I say with a wink. Fiona and I get into the Ute and head for Bryce’s house a few streets away. We pull up to the house and get out of the Ute. “I’m so driving on the way back! You’re shit.” Laughs Fiona. “Oh so you think that you’re a better driver than me do you?” I ask. “I don’t think so. I know so.” She states. “Guess we’ll have to find out then won’t we?” I ask as we walk to the front door and head inside. The house is trashed, needles and bongs all over the place. It smells like a rubbish tip. We search the house but find nothing of any interest. We head back to our overnight house and walk inside. “Guys. Fiona thinks she’s a better driver than me.” I say to the others who are sitting at the kitchen table. “Ha ha. She probably is mate.” Laughs Mark. “Fuck off mate! Let’s go see now then shall we?” I say back. “How are we going to test this?” Fiona enquirers. “We go into town, take the best car we can find, set up a track and we race!” I state, then turn and walk out the door and over to our cars on the street. “Oh yeah! I am so down with this!” Yells Mark as he and the others come outside. We lock everything up and head into town in the four wheel drive wagon we now have. I pull up outside of a car yard on the Main Street of town. We get out and start looking for the sportiest car we can find. “Smithy come here.” Says Mark. We all walk over to him as he’s looking for though the glass doors into the showroom. “There!” He says pointing inside at the brand new display cars. “Guess we’re going in for a look mate!” I say excited. “How are we going to get in?” Asks Sandy. “I’ve got an idea. Stay here.” Says Fiona with a smile and she runs off. About a minute passes and we see Fiona pull into the driveway next to us she speeds up and drives the car straight through the showroom doors, she then reverses out, parks the car on the side of the driveway and yells out to us. “There you go!” As she gets out of the car and walks toward the showroom. “That worked.” I say to Mark and Sandy. We walk over to Fiona and head inside to see what we can find. We walk inside the showroom and start looking around. “Looks clear.” Says Sandy as she’s looking through the offices behind the service desk. “Yeah I can’t see anyone or any Z’s in here.” I say. “Here’s the key box.” Sandy says from inside an office with “manager” written on the door. “I start walking around the new cars inside the showroom. “I’m taking this one!” Yells Fiona standing next to a brand new green SS sedan. “I want the Ute.” I say pointing at a black SS Ute. “I’ll have the red one.” Says Mark pointing at another SS sedan in the corner of the showroom. “I’m riding with you Mark. What’s the number plates of your cars?” Says Sandy. We tell her the plates and she brings us keys to the cars. We all get in our chosen cars, start them and drive out onto the Main Street. “I’m almost out of fuel.” Says Fiona. “Same here.” Says Mark. “Go back to the truck and grab some full jerrycans mate. We’ll stay here and set out the track.” I say. Mark and Sandy head off to get some fuel as Fiona jumps into my new Ute, we head off around town setting out a short track. We round the second last corner and see three zombies in the street. “Run ‘em down.” Says Fiona. I look at her and say. “No. I’m not scratching my new car.” She laughs and says. “Ok. Let’s bash some undead skulls.” “I’m in. It’s a cute date these days.” I say laughing as we get out of the Ute. “Dude you didn’t bring anything to kill them with.” Says Fiona. “Oh shit, haha.” I laugh. “Have a look behind your seat, there should be a tyre changing tool in there.” I say to Fiona. She moves the seat forward and grabs the tyre changing tool. She walks to the closest zombie and slams the pointed end upward through its open mouth and out the top of its head. I watch on as I sit on the bonnet of the car and light a cigar. Fiona pushes the dead zombie onto the floor and walks to the next one, she swings the socket end of the tool into the side of the zombies head, it falls to the floor and she slams the tool into its head again, she stands up. “Don’t worry mate, you just chill there. I got this.” She Says as she looks at me laughing, Fiona then walks to the last zombie and swings again, hitting it in the head, but it doesn’t fall over and Fiona drops the tool on the ground. She steps backward and waits for the zombie to walk toward her. She lifts her leg and push kicks it as hard she can, it falls over backwards onto the bitumen, Fiona grabs the tool from the ground walks over to the zombie, puts her foot on its chest and drives the tool through its forehead, she spins around, looks at me while I’m still sitting on the bonnet of he car and says. “How do you like that?” I smile at her as she blows the hair out of her face, she then grabs the tool and walks back to the Ute. “Got one for me?” Asks Fiona. I hand her a cigar, we get back in the Ute and drive around to where we left the other cars, we see Mark and Sandy filling them up. “Okay guys we’ve made a track, so get in your cars and we’ll show you around it.” Says Fiona. “Grab some weapons though. This noise is bound to attract some more Z’s.” I say laughing. We all get in our cars and start heading around the track. After a few laps we pull up out the front of the dealership ready to start racing. “Everyone ready?” I ask over the two way. The others all nod. “Three. Two, One, GO!” I yell down the two way, we all take off and start pounding around our track. After a while of our afternoon fun of close racing we begin to see zombies appearing around the track. I see a small one in the middle of turn 3. I power towards it, put the Ute into a drift and slam the zombie with the back part of the drivers side tray, the zombie bounces off the tray and slams into a street light post. I lose time though and both Mark and Fiona pass me. I see Mark in the lead as I catch up to right behind Fiona she smashes straight into a zombie, it goes flying over her roof, lands on my bonnet then bounce over my roof and lands in the tray. I pass Fiona and hear her say over the two way in hysterical laughter. “Look in your rear view mirror!” I look up and see the zombie trying to stand in the tray. I pull in front of Fiona and floor it, the zombie falls backward out of the tray onto the road and is run over immediately by Fiona, she drives over its head with her passenger wheel. As I catch up to Mark I can see in the mirror that Fiona is falling behind. I get past Mark on the inside of a left hand bend we are side by side as we come to the next left, I try to get in front around the outside but Mark just touches the rear wheel of my Ute with his bonnet causing me to slide in front of him. He tries to brake but ends up T-boning me straight into the side of a parked car. I climb out of the window and make my way to the front of my car as Sandy and Mark are making their way out of the passenger side door. We are all in stitches of laughter when Fiona pulls up to us. Steam pissing out from under the bonnet, oil and water pouring from her engine, a huge dent in the front from the zombie she ran down. “What happened?” Asks Fiona. None of us can answer as we are still laughing too hard.
“Guess I win then?” Asks Fiona laughing. We stop laughing so hard and are able to start talking again. “Oh wow. That’s a fucking good way to relieve the stress isn’t it?” I ask walking over to Fiona and hugging her. “Well we’ve established that I’m the best. So if you want a lift back to the wagon, I’d suggest getting in.” Laughs Fiona as she gets in her car and tries to start it. It won’t start though. We all burst into laughter again. “Looks like we’re walking.” Laughs Mark. We grab our weapons and begin walking back to the wagon on the other side of town at the start of our race track. “So clearly I am the best. You may refer to me as, grand master race queen.” Says Fiona laughing. We continue to argue about who is the best and talking about our race as we walk back to the wagon, we jump in and Sandy tries to start it. It won’t start. “Who left the lights on?” Asks Mark. “Oh well, nice evening for a walk. Care to join me my dear?” I ask Fiona, with my hand out. “Oh why certainly, how kind of you.” Fiona replies, she loops her arm around mine with a smile and and start walking back to our overnight house. “Yeah you better walk off!” Yells Mark jokingly, we laugh in response as Mark goes inside the showroom and takes the keys to a new four wheel drive tray back ute, he drives out picks Sandy up and slowly drives past us leaning out the window with a big smile. “Better hurry or all the cold beer will be gone.” He says then speeds off. We continue walking as the sun is starting to set. We see a single zombie on the side of the road, we walk towards it as I lift my rifle one handed and fire without breaking stride. The shot hits the zombie in the top of the head taking a chunk of skull and brain out. We carry on walking and as we turn into our street we can hear very distant gunfire. “Sounds like it’s coming from southwest of here.” I say to Fiona as we stop and look around. “Sounds far away. We’ll worry about it later. Let’s go. I’m fucking thirsty mate.” Says Fiona. We walk down to our house and head inside, we meet the others at the kitchen table, take a seat and some beers. “Mate. If we want to head south from here, there’s two choices of road that we can take towards Perth.” Says Mark looking at a map on the table. “What choices?” I ask. “Inland or coastal highway.” Says Mark. “Well first we need to decide where abouts we want to end up.” I say. “We want somewhere that’s not full on bush but also not a complete desert.” Says Fiona. We look over the map trying to decide where we should head for when Sandy says. “There. That’s where we are going to aim for.” Pointing at the map. “Why!” Mark asks. “It’ll be close enough for what we want to do. It’s a good area capable of farming all animals and growing most foods.” Says Sandy. “Sounds good to me.” I say. “How do you know all of that?” Asks Fiona. “My grandparents had a farm out that way when they were younger, grandad used to tell me about how it was a perfect place.” Says Sandy. “I’m in.” Says Mark. “How far is it?” Asks Fiona. “At least 1500 k’s.” I say. “So two days drive through the middle of our fine undead state?” Laughs Mark. “Have we got enough fuel and supplies to get there?” Asks Sandy. “Yeah we’ve got plenty of fuel on the truck.” I say. “We can always stop at roadhouses on the way and hook into their tanks if we need.” Says Mark. “How would you get the fuel out though smart ass.” Says Fiona. “Turn the pumps on.” Says Mark. The girls look at him likes he’s an idiot. “I’m an electrical engineer by trade. We have a massive generator on the truck. How do you think we have power in here tonight? I can do anything.” Laughs Mark as he knocks back his beer. “Racing around today made me miss my own cars. When we get set up on our farm I’m going home to get them.” I say. “Where do you even live? And what cars do you have?” Asks Fiona. “I’ve got five acres about forty minutes out of the city. And I have a ‘16 GTR and a ‘77 Torana hatch with a 6.2L supercharged V8 In it… And an old 4x4 Ute.” I say. “Are you fucking kidding me, you just became even more awesome.” Says Fiona excitedly. I just look at her. “So, Umm, are you seeing anybody?” Says Fiona with a wink as she starts laughing. “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” Says Sandy. “They’re nice cars. We spent a lot of time on that Torana didn’t we mate?” Says Mark. “You guys live together?” Asks Sandy and Fiona. “Yeah, we’ll only a little bit. I broke up with me mrs of 7 years about 3 months before the zombies. So I’m crashing with Smithy for now. Well I was. You know what I mean.” Says Mark laughing. We hear some more gunshots. “That’s getting closer.” Says Fiona as we all walk to the front door then outside into the nearly completely dark street. “We need to keep an eye out tonight, just in case they come here.” Says Sandy. “We’ll take the first shift. You boys can have the second watch.” Says Fiona with authority. “No worries doll.” I say, we all head inside, grab some more beers and talk shit about the day for a while longer until I head off to bed.
“Wake up mate.” Says Fiona as she wakes me up. “What’s happening?” I ask. It’s been 5 hours and we haven’t seen or heard anything. It’s your turn.” Says Fiona as she lays down and I get up. “I’ll wake you up if there’s an issue.” I say to Fiona kissing her then walking out to the kitchen where Mark is already making coffees. “Here mate.” He says, handing me a coffee. “I was thinking that we ditch the old Ute we have and just take the good mining one the truck and the new one I took today.” Says Mark as we sit at the table. “Yeah sounds good mate.” I say in reply, we stay up until sun up looking over the map trying to figure out the best route to take, where to stop overnight and what we might find on the way. “Morning boys. Is there any coffee ready?” We hear Sandy ask as she walks into the kitchen followed by Fiona. “Yeah I’ll make some now.” Says Mark. “No more sundresses my dear?” I ask Fiona. “Not today bae. It’s an ass kicking kind of day today.” Fiona replies with a wink and a smile as she stands there in her trademark outfit of torn skinny black jeans and a T shirt. I smile at her. “So we just need to disconnect the power, load all the shit from the old Ute onto the new one and we’re ready to go.” I say. We all sit and finish our coffees then head out, get ready and set off. I’m driving the truck. The girls are in the new Ute and Mark is driving our old mining