by Tony Thomas
‘Natural boundaries and arterial roads will be used to form the boundaries where possible. Existing noise barriers will be extended on highways in order to fence off the no-go zone. No one will be permitted to leave the Sydney Quarantine Zone, or SQZ, until the crisis has passed. The armed forces have been deployed alongside police and emergency services to ensure this quarantine is strictly enforced.’
The PM looked at the ministers flanking him. One gave a fairly emphatic nod, the PM winced and continued.
‘I regret to advise that there has been loss of life in the enforcement of the SQZ. The use of helicopter gunship patrols along the waterways has resulted in the destruction of several watercraft. Infantry patrols on land boundaries has resulted in several incidents involving loss of life in people attempting to leave the SQZ. Despite this, the SQZ is a success, we have “Stopped the Spread”.’
‘Christ, another three-word slogan,’ Gen said. ‘He’s back to his old tricks already.’
‘Yeah, and stopped people leaving Sydney, except for Brick, and that Bozo guy, and his family’, Dan said, ‘and who knows how many others?’
‘Is it possible they don’t know? Those guys with him seem to be making sure he keeps the story straight,’ replied Gen.
‘What are you talking about?’ Joanne asked.
Before Dan or Gen could answer the PM continued.
‘With respect to the situation within the SQZ, there have been multiple outbreaks. The focal areas for these outbreaks include the Airport, the Northern Beaches, the Inner and Outer West, the Eastern Suburbs, Sutherland, and the Hills districts. In short, almost all areas of Sydney have been affected.
‘Some of these outbreaks have been contained, such as the initial outbreak in the airport. Most, however, continue to be uncontrolled and fast spreading. I have ordered the armed forces to attempt to take control. Unfortunately, this is not a conventional urban warfare scenario. If people in the early stage of the infection are shot, they often reanimate and attack. Reanimated infected people only stop moving after receiving severe brain injuries.
‘The quarantine centre at the Hordern Pavilion suffered a major outbreak. In an attempt to stop this spreading an air attack using high explosives was made. While those directly affected by the blast were mostly killed, many were simply injured or burned. Infected people were observed to leave the area. These people continued to try to infect or attack others.’
‘Oh fuck!’ Dan said. ‘The guy that I was supposed to meet for an interview tomorrow was at the Hordern. I only just spoke to him. Fucking hell.’
‘Our advice to the uninfected in the SQZ is to stay indoors. Do not attempt to leave the zone. All persons found outdoors will be assumed to be infected. Under the current martial law, conditions people found on the street can and will be shot on sight.’
‘Oh Jesus, protect us!’ Joanne gasped.
‘The army is forming a task force to sweep and clear Sydney. Initially this task force will secure and hold utility infrastructure, to ensure our ongoing ability to provide essential services such as power and water supply. They will then move on to secure residential areas before finally tackling commercial districts.’
Dan wondered aloud, ‘Why do they think that will work any better than what they’ve done so far?’
‘For those living outside of the SQZ, life will soon return to relative normality within Australia. We will continue to monitor the international situation, and a national quarantine will remain in force. The regional curfews may be lifted within twenty-four hours if there are no further outbreaks.
‘My friends, we are weathering this storm. By the grace of God, we will survive and become stronger. There will be no questions. Thank you.’
12:45 AEST: Albion Park
‘Gen, they’ve let us go,’ Rita said, talking through the car Bluetooth system.
‘What happened?’
‘Well, the cars and trucks in the airport kept slowly moving forward. When we got to the checkpoint they checked if we were okay, they even took our temperatures with one of those gun thingys. Then gave us a choice—either accept a billet near the airport, or we could continue on our way. They even gave us papers so we could pass through other checks.’
‘Did you tell them about Brick?’
Rita hesitated. ‘I told them how he was already on holiday at Rocky Hall and we were going to meet him. I think that helped a little. They even told us where we could buy fuel.’ Rita hoped that Gen would read between the lines and not ask any more about Brick, just in case the call was monitored.
Gen asked, ‘So where are you now?’
‘We’ve just left Albion Park, heading down the highway towards Nowra. They told us we can get fuel at Nowra if we show our papers. It’s looking pretty good.’
Sharn called from the back, ‘Mum, my head hurts.’
‘You’ll be okay, Sharnie. Say hello to Aunty Gen.’
‘Hi, Aunty Gen,’ Max chimed in.
Sharn was slower to react. ‘Hi, Aunty Gen. Mum, I really do feel bad. My head is hurting, and I cut my finger on something, it’s bleeding.’
Rita didn’t want to slow down or stop. ‘Sharn, have a drink of water. That’ll help your headache. Your finger will be fine.’
Gen spoke up, ‘How long has your head been hurting Sharnie?’
‘A little while. I didn’t want to say anything while we were in the airport, but it started then.’
Max butted in. ‘She’s bleeding on the seat as well.’
Rita caught her breath. ‘When did you cut your finger Sharn?’
‘I’m not sure, Mum. It wasn’t bleeding before but it was really itchy and I scratched it.’
Rita said, ‘Oh fuck!’ under her breath. ‘Gen, I’m going to pull over and have a look at Sharn’s finger and give her something for her headache. I’ll call you back.’
Rita pulled into the breakdown lane just after the Shellharbour turn-off. The lane wasn’t very wide so she was careful opening her door before going to the back of the car, getting the first aid kit, and walking back to the rear door. She checked for traffic again before opening the door and saying ‘Okay sweetie, give me a look at your finger.’
Sharn help up her index finger, it was a bit of a mess with blood smeared all over it. Rita took an alcohol-wipe from the first aid kit and started cleaning Sharn’s hand and finger. She flinched a couple of times, but didn’t seem to be too uncomfortable. Rita felt relieved, remembering how sensitive Brick’s knuckles had been.
Once the finger was clean Rita had a good look at it. There was a light cut on the inside of the top joint of Sharn’s index finger. Rita couldn’t work out if it had happened when Sharn was trying to free herself from Brick or if she had cut it on something else. She put some antiseptic cream on it, then dressed it with a Band-Aid.
‘Okay, sweetie. That’ll stop it bleeding. Now where does you head hurt?’
Sharn was getting a little weepie, ‘All over, Mum,’ she sobbed.
Rita popped a single Panadol tablet and gave it to Sharn, ‘Swallow this and have a sip of water sweetie. Your head will stop hurting in no time.’
Sharn sniffed, took the small pill, and swallowed it and had a sip of water. She smiled at Rita.
‘Good girl!’ Rita said, giving her a hug. ‘How about you, champ, you okay?’ Rita said, looking across at Max.
‘I’m good, Mum,’ Max said. ‘I’m going to watch Star Wars on the iPad—is that okay?’
‘Sure, mate,’ Rita said. She gave Sharn’s hand a squeeze then closed the door.
Rita returned to the driver’s seat, started the engine, and pulled out. She looked at Sharn in the rear-view mirror. She was starting to doze off. Probably a good thing Rita thought, as she continued down the highway.
12:45 AEST: Randwick
Jeff found Pete in the front room of the house. He was watching the television and didn’t react at all as Jeff walked into the room. ‘Pete, I just spoke to Jim, he’s okay still. He said all the TV stations a
re on the Emergency Broadcast System.’
Pete held up his hand, ‘Hold on a sec, mate. We need to hear this.’
Jeff looked at the television. The screen showed five men in suits standing in front of a cluster of Australian flags. The man in the middle was talking. ‘Who’s that?’ he asked.
‘That’s our prime minister. He’s just finished making a pretty major announcement. He’s been forced by the other members of the government to tell everything he can about what’s happening.’
‘Wouldn’t he have done that anyway?’ Jeff asked. ‘I mean with freedom of the press and all, how could he get away with lying.’
‘After nine-eleven, and over the last couple of years especially, our government changed some rules. Not as bad as your Patriot Act in terms of individual freedoms, but they can lock journalists up for revealing “matters of national security”—even if they didn’t know they were “matters of national security”. These bastards hide behind it all the time. That’s how they got away with the concentration camps for refugees. I’m guessing the honest politicians got sick of the bullshit.’
‘Well at least he’s saying he’ll give full information now. So what’s happening?’
‘Not good news, mate. He said that pretty much everywhere is screwed. Your government have lost control and are in a bunker somewhere. The Japanese government have just pulled out onto an aircraft carrier like the Indians did. New Zealand is the only place uninfected.’
‘Oh my god!’ Jeff muttered, shaking his head. ‘What about here?’
‘He said only Sydney is infected. It’s just about everywhere though so I don’t know how he can be so sure of that. They’re fencing off motorways to make a quarantine zone. No one is allowed out. He admitted they bombed the Hordern Pavilion. He said that it didn’t really work, and that infected people were seen leaving the area. They can’t be too far behind us. The army are going to attempt to clear out the zombies a suburb at a time. I think you’re right. We’re better of holing up here for the duration.’
Jeff nodded and stared mutely at the TV. There was some talking head repeating what Pete had just told him, along with some footage of helicopters shooting what looked like speedboats. Pete stood and walked to the front window. The old-fashioned wide venetian blinds were closed and cut the light completely. Obviously, Brett hadn’t wanted anyone to see in. Pete pulled a slat down and looked out for a moment, then carefully let it go holding it so the blinds didn’t swing before he stepped back.
He turned to Jeff. ‘I think there’s some zombies out in front.’
Jeff walked towards the window and reached to move a slat. Pete caught him by the wrist and said, ‘I think we should be careful. We don’t want them to see us.’
‘Okay, but I want to look out and see what’s happening. What if we just open the blinds a tiny bit—enough to see out without moving them?’
‘I guess that could work,’ Pete said. He walked to the side of the window and slowly turned the control rod enough that there were gaps they could see through.
Jeff crouched a little to see through the gaps in the blinds. On the street he could see people running from house to house. There were also at least a dozen people lumbering down the street. Some of them with serious burns, others looking badly damaged with open, weeping wounds and gaping injuries. He stepped back slightly and said, ‘Holy shit. It’s gone crazy out there.’
Pete was also looking through the blinds. ‘Fuck me, one’s coming this way now.’
Sure enough, a woman, with a huge graze down the side of her face had started running towards the window they were looking through. ‘She must be able to see us,’ Jeff said, aghast, as the woman fell blindly over the low fence in the front of the yard. ‘Shut the damn blinds!’
Pete was already twisting the rod as the woman slammed into the bars on the windows. The bars were a security grid designed to stop people breaking in. They could hear the woman scrabbling to reach through them, but she was unable to hit at the glass with any force. Moments later, there was another thud and more scrabbling.
‘I think we’ve got more than one visitor now,’ Pete said. He walked out of the room saying, ‘I’m just going to check the bedroom window is okay.’
Jeff stood staring at the window. He felt an irresistible urge to pull back the blind and look out. The venetians were inset into the window frame so he couldn’t see through the sides. ‘To hell with it,’ he muttered, then pulled a slat down enough to look through. There were now four people, two men and two women, pounding on the window. Another man was charging towards them from the street. The people at the window became slightly more frenzied with the movement of the blind.
Jeff ignored them. The lights on one of the cars on the other side of the road flashed. Suddenly someone from across the street opened their front door and sprinted down the front stairs towards the street. As he watched, he saw it was a young Middle-Eastern looking man, maybe mid-twenties. Jeff could see he was holding keys as he leapt his low fence before sliding over the hood of his car. The man turned quickly and waved encouragement back to his house before opening his door and rushing into the driver’s seat, slamming the door behind him.
A young woman wearing a Hijab was now coming down the stairs. She was moving slower than the man—Jeff could see she was heavily pregnant. She stepped carefully over the gate and was reaching for the door handle when a young boy, no more than twelve years old, slammed into her from the side, knocking her to the ground. In a flash the first man was out of the car, rounding it to help the woman. He picked up the boy and threw him over the car and onto the road.
The man helped the woman into the car. As he shut the door he was hit by a wave of people. Falling out of view behind the car. Jeff noticed that the ones that had been pounding on the window of the house had gone and joined the pack attacking the man.
Moments later the pack stood and started to try to get into the car. Jeff could see the woman screaming, she was trying to climb across the seat to the driver’s side, but was clearly hampered by her swollen belly. Suddenly the window on the passenger side shattered under the multiple impacts. The woman was dragged from the car, screaming and struggling under the savage beating.
Jeff let go of the blinds, sickened. He went to find Pete.
10:45 SST (12:45 AEST): Singapore
The decision to go to Boat Quay hadn’t been unanimous. Lincoln had wanted to find a car or some other transport. The others had wanted to go with the original idea of a boat. Lincoln had bowed to the majority.
As they walked down the middle of North Bridge Road, the group were hyper alert. They all carried their bags now to avoid making any noise. The first block passed without incident. As they started on the second block, Lincoln stopped and looked at the building next to them. ‘This is Funan Mall, maybe it’d be a good place to hole up for a while, we might even find a car.’
Lara agreed, ‘Sure—it has a food court so there would be some supplies. There’s not that many doors. Maybe it’s still empty as well.’
‘No way,’ Mick said. ‘I’m not locking myself in a mall like some loser from a zombie flick.’ He shook his head. ‘There’s bound to be someone in there, these buildings never get locked. Let’s stick to the plan of getting to a bumboat.’
‘I’m not so sure, Mick,’ Chris said. ‘This thing started before even cleaners would be at work. The mall’s probably empty.’
As if to prove them wrong, a woman came staggering out of the TCC coffee shop in the ground floor of the mall, just ahead of them. She was walking unnaturally, staggering and lurching.
‘See what I mean?’ Mick said. ‘A fucking zombie. Let’s keep walking, maybe she’ll ignore us.’
The group continued on, keeping a sharp eye on the zombie but trying to look ahead as well. Almost inevitably someone stumbled, Lincoln tripped on the pavement and dropped his bag. ‘Fuck!’ he muttered.
Mick had his desk leg in his right hand and put down his bag ready to fight the zombie.
She turned and started to stagger towards them. Mick lowered the desk leg. ‘Thank fuck for that. It’s a slow one. C’mon, let’s keep moving.’
Lincoln picked up his bag, muttered ‘Sorry, guys,’ and started walking faster. Lara followed closely behind him. Chris came next and then Mick in the rear. They continued to walk at a faster pace for another block, now the Parliament House was on their left and office complexes on their right.
Lincoln stopped just short of the bridge and pointed to the left. ‘Look, there’s a tourist bumboat moored just in front of Parliament House.’ He turned to the others, ‘We can use that to get to Marina Bay. Then we can find a real yacht or an ocean going boat. We’re home and hosed guys!’
‘Keep your voice down, Linc,’ Mick said. ‘We’ve got a zombie on our tail and it’s still a few hundred metres away. Let’s hustle.’
Lincoln was getting annoyed at how alpha-male Mick was becoming. He had worn it while they climbed down the building. After all, it had been Mick’s idea and he knew a bit about climbing. Mick had rubbished his idea of a car and he had put up with that as well. Now he had spotted the boat Mick needed and he was being told to shut up.
‘Let’s get something straight, Mick,’ Lincoln said. ‘I’m leading this group, not you.’
Mick started walking towards the boat. ‘Don’t be a fucking idiot, Linc,’ he said as he kept walking.
Chris kept walking towards the boat as well. ‘C’mon Linc, this is not the time, you know?’ he said as he walked past.
Lara stopped with Lincoln. ‘I agree with Linc. He’s the one who got us safe in the room. He’s our manager. He should be leading us.’
Mick and Chris had kept walking quickly towards the boat. Mick turned and said, ‘Fine Mr Leader sir. You might want to move your arse before that zombie bites it though.’ Mick started running for the boat, Chris was only seconds behind.