by Adam Smith
I start reading the letter out loud at the bonnet of the car while Mark puts the bag of supplies in the ute with our crowbars and the new gun I found.
'To whoever gets to read this.
My name is doctor Theodore Brown.
I write this letter in hope that it will serve you in the way I hoped I could serve my family.
After the outbreak my wife, 2 teenage sons and I left our house in town to come here to get some supplies then head out to our holiday home to wait out this disaster, however as I came inside the office the power went out and the doors were jammed behind me, I turned around and tried to get out but I couldn't. My family were trying to help me escape when a group of the undead descended on them. I watched as they were eaten alive. I started screaming and banging on the door when I heard noises from behind me and was attacked by my secretary, I fought her off and managed to run in here to my office and lock the door. That's when I discovered I had been bitten and I know what happens when you get bitten, you turn. So back to the point of my letter. Our holiday home is a fully self contained home on our 400 acre block of land on the coast. It has a generator for power, solar hot water heating and 3 large rainwater tanks. To find the home you must travel out of town and directly to the coast road, turn right and head up the coast for 30 kilometres on the left is a small track into the scrub marked by two rocks follow it for about a kilometre until you get to our home. The keys are on the key ring inside my family four wheel drive at the front of the building rego plate 'cntrydoc'.
I hope this helps you survive this outbreak, I am getting weak and dizzy now. I must go before I turn.
Yours sincerely
Doctor Theodore Brown.'
“Jackpot mother fucker.” I yell, Mark gives me a high 5 and says. “We need to get back to the shack and tell the girls.” “Yeah let's go.” I say, we jump in the ute and start driving. “Fuck, hang on.” I say and get out of the ute, I run to the doctors car, open the drivers door and grab his keys out of the ignition. “I think we are going to need these.” I say as I run back to the ute and jump in. “Lucky ha ha.” Says Mark. We start heading back to the shack as fast as we can.
“Crackle, pop, Mark, pop, crackle, help.” the two way crackles as we begin to get close to the shack. “What the fuck was that. I heard my name.” Yells Mark. “Hope the girls aren't in trouble.” I say and speed up the ute as much as I can. We get to the shack turn off and head down the road towards the shack. 'Bang! Bang! Bang! We hear. “Shit speed up!” Yells Mark. We come flying down the track and into the clearing of the shack and see Sandy at the front door firing at 4 zombies nearing the front of the house, Fiona against the truck cab firing at 5 zombies coming out of the bush. We jump out of the ute grab our guns, run to where Fiona is and start wiping out some more zombies. All three of us fire at the zombies, blood and brains go flying and all 5 zombies fall, we all turn around and run around the back of the truck and kill the remaining zombie that's stumbling closer to Sandy who's struggling to reload in the doorway. I walk towards the zombie, point my shotgun at it's head from about 2 metres away and squeeze the trigger, turning this zombies head into red mist.
“Sandy, are you okay?” Yells Mark, I look at her, I can see blood running down her arm from the gunshot wound. “There's more coming.” Says Sandy pointing towards the far bush line. I run over to the ute and grab the bag of supplies from the tray and give them to Fiona. “Take this to Mark, I'll get us some weapons.” I Say to Fiona, she runs up to the front door and helps Mark and Sandy inside. I grab the crowbars from the ute, start reloading and head inside the house, I walk inside grab some more guns, check if they're loaded and hand one to Fiona. “Stay here and sort her out.” I tell Mark. I hand Fiona a crowbar and ask her. “Are you comfortable smashing some undead skulls in?” “I'll give it a try.” replies Fiona. “Good, shall we go get the rest of these suckers? Mark stay ready in case something goes down.” I say and make my way to the front door. Looking outside I can see 6 zombies walking towards the house from about 50 metres away. Fiona and I head out the door, closing it behind us, into the hot morning sun we walk over to the zombies and move away from each other to try and separate the group, it doesn't work, all of the zombies follow Fiona. I walk up behind them while Fiona is distracting them and start quietly killing them one by one with a small axe I grabbed from the ute. I walk up to the last zombie of the group and slam my axe into the back of it's head in one swift motion I kick the zombie in the back and pull my axe out of it's skull, blood flies up and trails my axe as the zombie falls face down in the dirt. “We need to go for a walk and clear the surrounding bush, or if we can't clear it at least we will know what's coming our way.” I Say to Fiona. “Um okay, you can lead though.” Says Fiona a bit reluctantly. We make our way to the edge of the clearing where the scrub starts, we begin walking around the perimeter of the clearing checking for more zombies. “What happened?” I ask. Fiona looks at me and says. “Well I heard some noise from the truck and actually thought you two were back, so I went outside to have a look and as I got outside I saw a bunch of zombies at the back of truck. So, I called out to Sandy, she came to the door then ran inside got her gun, came back and started shooting. I jumped in the truck, grabbed the gun on the seat and did the same.” “Nice job. You guys got a fair few before we turned up.” I say. “Yeah we got a couple, no big deal.” Says Fiona looking at me trying not to laugh at her own sarcasm. “Did you try to call us on the two way?” I ask. “Yeah, that was me, I didn't know how much ammo we had in the truck and I really didn't want to become a zombies breakfast today.” She says. We continue our walk around the clearing finding nothing else so we decide to head back to the house. We walk around to the front of the house from the back and see 2 more zombies stumbling towards us from near the ute and truck. “Wanna' try out your bashing skills now?” I ask. “Yeah I better.” Says Fiona. We walk straight up to the 2 zombies that are about 10 metres apart, Fiona swings her crowbar like a flat bat cricket shot, slamming into the side of the zombies face. “Again” I say. She goes again, then again and the zombie falls to the ground and doesn't move. She walks over to the next zombie raises the crowbar above her head and slams the hooked end straight down, into the top of the zombies head, as it falls over backwards she cant pull the crowbar out in time, she lets go. stumbles forwards, managing to keep her balance she turns around looks at me as I'm about to burst into laughter, I say to her. “Been zombie killing long?” Then I start laughing hysterically. “Shut up dickhead.” laughs Fiona still standing there looking at me, she leans down and gets her crowbar back from the zombies skull. “C'mon let's go inside and make sure these two love-birds are ok.” I say. “They better not be in there fucking doing it while we're out here being bad asses.” says Fiona as we turn around and walk to the front door open it and go inside. Sandy is sitting at the table looking through the packs of medicine, while Mark wraps her arm with a bandage from the bag of supplies we got from town. “You okay?” Asks Fiona. “Yeah just a little bit of blood, but I'll be fine.” Jokes Mark. I start laughing and Fiona Says in a joking manner “You two are as bad as each other. You dick heads. I mean Sandy, how are you?” Everyone has a laugh then Sandy replies. “Yeah I'm good, my arm is really sore today but with these medicines I shouldn't get an infection.” “How do you know so much about medicine?” I ask, “Oh, I am a nurse.” Says Sandy. “That’s a handy piece of information.” I say. “Oh shit. Smithy. Tell them the good news!” Says Mark excitedly. “What good news”? Asks Fiona, I run out the front door to the ute, grab the map and note, then run back inside. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Just tell us. And what is that in your hand?” Says Fiona “Well, when we got to the town this morning and went inside I found a dead doctor, after we killed some zombies of course, and said doctor had a note and a map on him. A note and a map that lead to his secluded fully self-contained beach house on the coast.” I say with a big smile, slapping the map and note on the table for the girls to see. “Really?” Asks Sa
ndy. “It’s gotta’ be safer than here.” Says Fiona. “I agree, we should go there and check it out, after all we were heading for the coast anyway.” Says Mark. “After today's pack that wandered in here. Somewhere a bit more secure would be nice.” Says Sandy. “I think it’s a good idea as well.” Says Fiona. “That’s it then! As soon as you feel up to travelling Sandy we’ll go.” I say. “I’ll be able to travel tomorrow as long as someone else drives me.” Says Sandy. “Okay then it’s settled, we will be out of here in the morning.” I say. “Sweet I’ll start packing up some shit we don’t need then. Come give us a hand Smithy.” Says Mark, we start gathering up guns and ammo and load it all into bags then head outside. The girls start packing up all our other stuff and bring it outside to where Mark and I are loading the truck and ute ready for travel.
“Here guys, this is the last bag of stuff for today. All that is left is the stuff we need for tonight.” Says Sandy as Fiona passes me the bag. “Excellent, I’m buggered from all this loading up nonsense.” Says Mark. The girls head back inside. “Time for a beer mate.” I say. “Sure is.” He replies as he gets down from the truck, we head inside and see the girls making some food. “Mark and I are going to go for a walk around and check that there’s no more zombies before it gets dark.” I say. We grab some beers, our guns and crowbars before walking out the door and start walking around the bush looking for zombies.
“Boys! Dinner is ready.” Yells Sandy from the house, we make our way back to the house and head inside, we sit at the table and eat dinner with the girls. After dinner Mark and I start cleaning up as Sandy and Fiona change the dressings on Sandy's arm. “I’ll be all healed in about a week, I hope.” Says Sandy as she finishes her dressing. “I hope so to.” Says Fiona who stands up give Sandy a hug and walks to her bedroom. “Night guys. See you in the morning. I hope this new house is good.” She says and closes the door behind her. “Night. See you tomorrow.” We all say. As I lay on the couch I say to Mark and Sandy “Turn the light off when you’re heading to bed please.” “No worries mate.” Says Mark, he walks to the front door and double checks that it’s locked then walks to the main bedroom door and says. “I hope this new house I better than this one mate.” “Same here mate, but we’ll see tomorrow.” I say sleepily as Mark turns off the lights, goes into the bedroom and shuts the door.
Bang! Crash!
I sit bolt upright on the couch to the sound of loud noises coming from outside, the light is just barely coming through the windows from the early morning sun. I jump up, grab my shotgun and torch then walk to the front door. “What the Fuck was that?” Says Mark as he bursts out from the bedroom with his shotgun. “Fuck knows.” I say. “What’s going on?” Says Fiona standing in her bedroom doorway. “I don’t know. Go in there with Sandy and we’ll have a look.” I say. As Fiona runs over to Sandy, Mark and I walk outside to investigate, I peek out the front door. “I don’t see anything mate. Come on let’s go.” I whisper, we move silently out the door and around to near the ute. “Look there, those boxes are on the floor.” Whispers Mark, “Cover me from here, I’ll go around the other side of the ute.” I say to Mark and make my way towards the opposite side of the ute, I’m just about to walk around and be able to see clearly when suddenly. Bang! Crash. “Fuck. Woah.” I yell, as a massive Kangaroo jumps past me. “Geez, that scared the fuck out of me.” I say, my heart pounding. “You okay?” Asks Mark. “Yeah I’m fine, you go back inside, I’ll clean up this shit then I’ll be in for some food” I say. Mark opens the door and the girls are waiting, as he walks inside Sandy says. “Is it safe?” “Yes, it was just a roo, Smithy is just picking up the mess it made, and he’ll be in.” Says Mark. “I’ll make some food.” Says Sandy.
I walk inside shutting the door behind me at the same time Sandy places some toast and cereal on the table. “That roo give you a scare, diddums?” Says Fiona laughing, she taps a chair. “Come have some food.” She says, and laughs again. “Yeah it was a bloody big roo.” I say and take a seat to eat breakfast. As we all finish eating Mark says. “Do you want to take the ute and lead mate? I’ll follow in the truck.” “Yeah that sounds good mate.” I reply. We pack up the rest of our stuff, head outside and get ready to head off. “I’ll shut this generator off and we’ll get going.” I say, Mark helps sandy in the truck then gets in the driver’s side, I walk over to him. “There’s some guns and ammo in here mate, channel 37 on the two way.” I say. “Sounds good brah. Let’s do it.” Replies Mark and he starts up the truck. “You ready Fiona?” I ask. “Sure am. We’ve got guns and ammo in here ready to go.” Says Fiona, she gets in the passenger side of the ute and I jump in the driver's seat. I move the ute out of the carport, onto the driveway and start heading for the main road. “Yeah boy!” Yells Mark over the two way as we head down the track to the main road, we turn right onto the main road and start heading for the coast and our new home. “How long will this take do you think?” Asks Fiona. “Probably 3 hours or so with the truck, Why’s that?” I reply. “So there’s plenty of time for you to tell me your life story then?” She says. “Well I guess so, yeah. What did you want to know?” I ask. “Everything, what makes you the person you are today?” She says as we cruise down the road. “Well, um.” I say. “C’mon you tell me something and I’ll tell you something.” Says Fiona. “Okay then, well I was born in ’88, mum was a teacher, but she died when I was 14 from cancer, dad is a construction manager. Well he was when I last saw him a few years back. He walked out on me after mum died. So, I ended up with my cousins, I lived there until I was able to join the army just before my 17th birthday as a mechanic, finished my apprenticeship off then shifted to infantry then special forces. I got out after 8 odd years and went to work for a private military for 2 years, came home took some time off, then decided to put my trade to work so, I came up here mining and have been up here for however long it’s been now, that’s how I met Mark.” I say and look at her. “Wow is there more that you’re not telling me? Like that can’t be the whole story.” Says Fiona. “It’s your turn now miss.” I say in reply. “Okay, I was born in 1989 my parents are flat out Christians and I wanted to choose my own life, so I moved out of home when I was 17 after we had a big fight over me getting my first tattoo, I moved in with my ‘at the time’ boyfriend and his parents, his dad is a tattoo artist, so I begged and begged him to teach me, after showing him all of my art and drawings he agreed to take me on as an apprentice, I did my apprenticeship at his shop even though I broke up with his son. So, as soon as my time was done, I left his shop and moved to a new all girl shop because we felt we had something to prove. About 6 months ago I decided to come up here and start my own shop in town, but it wasn’t quite as easy as I thought, I ended up working and living at the pub with Sandy and tattooing on the side, now I’m here in a ute in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the fucking zombie apocalypse.” Says Fiona, I look at her and say, “Pretty sure we’re going to loot a tattoo studio.” “Ha ha okay then, if we find one, you can get all the shit I need, and I’ll tattoo a zombie on you.” She says laughing.
The sun in the rear view mirror on a beautiful clear morning as we continue on down the road for the coast. We come past the turn off into the town we were at yesterday and keep on going for about 40 minutes until I can see the end of the road at a T junction. “Copy Mark.” I say over the two way. “Yeah got ya’ cob’.” Replies Mark “We’ll pull up at the intersection, take a break and look at this map.” I say. “Sounds good mate.” He replies as we slow down and come to a stop in the middle of the intersection, the truck pulls up beside me and mark gets out. “Feels good to get out of the truck.” He says and has a stretch. “So we go right here and about 30ks on the left hand side we should find the track to the house, according to the note the doc left us.” Says Fiona as she lays the map on the bonnet of the ute. “We need to find a little track with two marker rocks.” She says. “Yeah that’ll be easy to see.” I Say laughing. “So it’s 40 minutes back to the town we went to yester
day and there is another town 190 odd k’s up the road from here.” I say “Well we’ll have our choice of plenty of supplies if nothing else then.” Says Mark. “Shall we go then boys?” Asks Fiona “Yeah let’s get a move on.” I say, “I’ll wake Sandy up when we get closer.” Laughs Mark, we jump back into the ute and truck and set off up the road. “I’ll set the odometer so we know when we’ve done 28k’s, then I’ll let you know so we can look for this track.” I say.
After a short time of driving I say to Fiona, “we’ve done 28 k’s now, I’ll slow it down so we can look.” “Yeah sounds good, I’ll call Mark on the radio and let him know.” Says Fiona. She grabs the two way radio, clicks the button and says. “Mark we’re getting close now, so we are going to slow down, wake Sandy up and keep an eye out.” “Copy that Fiona.” Replies Mark. 10-15 minutes go by and nothing is standing out. “Maybe we’ve missed it.” I say. “Look over there. I think I see something a bit different.” Says Fiona and points at a small rock that looks out of place by the side of the road, as we get closer to it we see another rock and a small opening in the scrub. “I think you’ve found it.” I say, we pull off the road and I start heading down the track, I grab the two way radio, call Mark and say, “Mate, you wait here, we’ll head down the track and see if it’s the right one.” “Yeah mate, no worries.” Says Mark. I start driving down the track, as it begins to get a bit wider, the ground becomes a bit sandier, but the track remains solid, as the track winds around and up a small hill, we take a sharp left down the other side of the hill we come out of the bush onto a pristine beach with the house nestled not far from the scrub line and about 70m back from the waters edge. “Oh my god. Wooh, yeah! Look at that house and beach!” Yells Fiona, I grab the two way and call Mark telling him to drive down as we’ve ‘hit the jackpot’. I drive up to the house, we get out of the ute and wait for Mark and Sandy to arrive.