TeenZ

French Island

The bus bounced along the dirt path, not used to driving on anything other than asphalt. “Turn right onto Tankerton Road” I said looking straight ahead. Shannon turned the indicator on to let the Land Rover know we were turning. We continued along until stopped outside a small store, a wooden sign labelled ‘French Island General Store’ was above the door. Everyone but Kaycee climbed and walked into the store. A small bell rang as we walked through the door into the darkened shop. “Hello?” I asked, no one answered. We walked further into the store. We quickly checked the small store, no sign of zombies or humans. We walked back out and climbed back into the bus. I looked at the map again “Ok, there should be a guest house just up the road, keep driving along Tankerton” I said as we set off again. We stopped a short time later in front large house set slightly up a hill, we drove up to the property. We all climbed out with our weapons in hand. The house was on one side and the ocean on the other. We walked up to the front door and knocked, hoping that someone would answer. No one did. I twisted the doorhandle to see if it was locked. The door swung open to reveal the darkened house. A central couch in front of a fireplace was upturned and all the curtains of the main room were closed. I cautiously stepped inside as I tightened my grip on my machete. I crept slowly forward, everyone followed behind me. “Hello?” I asked, my voice echoed around the silent house. No one replied. I reached over and tried the light switch, it clicked but no lights illuminated. I sneaked over to the curtains, checking behind to couch as I went and flung open the curtains. The sudden light hurt my eyes as it came through the window. I turned around and so my eyes could adjust to the new light. Everyone was kneeling down with their hands on their heads, a group of people standing behind them aiming guns at their heads.
We were being marched along the road towards the general store, our bags and weapons having been taken from us we walked silently, not wanting to say or do anything wrong with fear of being shot. We were pushed into the general store. A young woman was standing behind the counter, “What are you doing here?” she asked “We were looking for somewhere safe to stay, we don’t mean any harm” I replied “How you got here?” She asked “We took the ferry from Corinella” Ebony answered “What, Gary was supposed to let us know if anyone came onto the island” She said looking to someone in the corner “Go see what is going on” She added “Was Gary by any chance dressed in a ranger’s uniform?” Shiro asked “Yes, why?” She asked questioningly “Because that bastard killed Leo!” Kaycee shouted, the lady pulled a gun and pointed it at Kaycee “That ‘Bastard’, as you called him was my brother” She said staring at Kaycee, there was a moment of silence as they stared at each other, neither one wanting to give any ground “He was infected, Kaycee was holding Leo and was attacked by him” I said “But how, no zombies have made it to the island before…” She said quietly “Well one must of somehow” I said “But I promise you that it wasn’t with us, he was already infected” I added, we waited in silence for a few seconds. “Stand up” She said firmly directed at us, we all rose to our feet “Is there anyone else, any other people who came with you?” she asked “No, it’s just us” I answered “Have any of you been bitten?” She asked slowly “No, we haven’t, we’ve been moving pretty much since this thing started” “Is that bus yours?” She asked “Yeah… we took it from our school, listen, I know this may seem forward but we really need somewhere safe to stay and we have nowhere else to go” I said “We have supplies in the bus and we can help keep this place safe, all we ask in return is somewhere to stay” I added. She stood there silently, deciding whether to let us stay or not. Eventually she answered “Fine, you can stay. You can stay in the guest house you stopped at, only the front room has been trashed, everywhere else is fine, there is a generator in a back shed” “Thank you” I said speaking on behalf of the group. We cautiously left the shop, just as we about to leave entirely I turned and asked “Are we able to have our weapons back, just in case?” “Everything but the guns will be at the guest house, we’ll hold on to those until we are sure you won’t try anything” She said walking into the back room. I walked outside and let the door close, hearing the small bell jingle as it did. “So, to the guest house I guess?” I asked “Yeah, let’s go, we’ll unpack everything then come back to town to help out” James said. We started walking back along the main road and arrived shortly back at the guest house. Inside the bus Kimmy was running back and forth along it, excited to see us returning. I walked over and opened the bus door, Kimmy jumped out and ran to Jess, she jumped up and put her paws on Jess’s stomach, almost knocking her over. Jess stumbled backwards slightly but balanced herself when Kimmy jumped back onto 4 legs. I climbed into the bus and grabbed a box. I carried it inside and dropped it in the front room. We quickly unloaded everything then went about rearranging the front room. After 30 minutes the room was in reasonable shape and didn’t look like a bull had gone insane in it. We left the Land Rover at the guest house and climbed into the bus, we drove into the town with one of the boxes and left it inside the store.
The once empty town was now bustling with life, everyone was moving around, going about their normal lives as if there was nothing wrong. It was weird to see people, well, live people who weren’t trying to tear us to pieces. We got a few looks from people as we walked around the town, we all separated and went to look around. I noticed the woman from earlier talking to an elderly woman on what I could only presume was the older woman’s lawn. The older woman had a sad look on her face; she was on the verge of crying. The younger woman stopped talking and the older woman started crying uncontrollably into the younger woman’s shoulder. I decided it was probably best that I leave them alone. I continued walking around the town. There were a few houses, all of them seemed more like holiday shacks, not houses where people live permanently. There were no large stores, no fancy houses, nothing. It looked like a small bush community where people like to keep to themselves. I reached the edge of the town, the dirt road suddenly stopped and instead there was just gum trees and shrubs. I turned back around and started walking back towards to store. “Oi, you!” I heard someone shout from beside me, I turned and faced where the voice was coming from, an older man was sitting on his front porch, he had a crooked smile and was missing teeth. “You the ones staying at the guest house?” He asked “Yeah, we are” I answered “You are the closest to the water, I don’t trust that they don’t make it to the island so take these. Throw them if you see them, let us know” The man said handing me a small wooden box, half of the box had flares the other half has small fireworks. “Uh, thanks, I guess” I started walking away “They will find a way, they always do” He shouted after me, I walked away “There isn’t any way they can make it here. Can they?” I asked myself, I continued walking back towards to store. I sat the box down outside the door and walked inside. The lady was back behind the counter, the box of food was still sitting on the floor “We brought this over, hope it is able to help” I said shifting the box onto the counter, she looked up, her eyes were red and puffy, “Thanks” She said quietly moving the box into the back room “I’m sorry about your brother…” I said quietly, she just nodded and remained silent “If there is anything you need, anything, don’t hesitate to ask, we are your guests here and would like to help out any way we can” I said, hoping that I could get her to talk “Thanks, I guess…” she said quietly. I could tell that she didn’t want to talk so I quietly left “Sarah, my name is Sarah” she said walking into the back room. The bell jingled again as the door opened and close. I picked up the wooden box and walked back to the guest house.
Weeks went by, we helped set up a farm and we did daily runs of going to the main land, searching for survivors, gas or food. With the help of people in the town we made the bus even better, we made a plough on the front of the bus to push the zombies to the side. A mechanic on the island helped us move fog lights from an old 4 wheel drive and attach them to the top of the bus as well. The Spring went by quickly as did the Summer, we all still maintained hope that our family was alive somewhere but Australia is a big country and about 97% of all humans were now zombies so hope was the only thing keeping us believing that they were out there somewhere, still breathing and not feasting on flesh. When Autumn came the zombies slowed down but were still dangerous none the less. We did fewer runs during Autumn as the close stores had all been raided by us or by other survivors. We had almost 90 people living with us on the island, some in the town, some in the guest house with us. We saved a variety of different people, everyone from a woman who was 7 months pregnant who was forced to beat her husband to death with a frying pan to a nun with a shotgun, who had to run from an orphanage as the children turned. We earned our guns back quickly as we brought more people and food for the town.