Herdenmord - ONC2021

Journey

"What? How are you alone?" I could hardly breathe. Mr and Mrs Quan were my scaffolding since my bedrock had been torn from under me.

Quan leaned back in the seat, tipping his face toward the ceiling. He was sweating with pain, but he answered my question. "It's okay. They went in my brother's jeep, but something chewed through the fuel lines last night. Lam patched it, but they couldn't risk coming here first."

"What, so you came alone?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah. I already know it was stupid. I was halfway here when a bloody wombat ran onto the road. Straight into me. It was like hitting a cinder block. That's what totalled my radiator."

"Was it still..." Dimi started.

"Alive?" Quan preempted her. "Not a chance. But I had to drag it out of the way and that was when the freaking cat got me."

"A cat?" Aiden said. He was already fishing bandages out of the first aid kit.

"Yeah, it came from nowhere. It scratched my eye."

"Let me have a look," Aaden said. He slowly peeled Quan's hand away from his wound. I couldn't watch, but I heard Aaden's breath hiss through his teeth.

A magpie landed on my bonnet. It looked at me with bright, reddish eyes and then ran across the bonnet at me. It hammered the glass with its beak, again and again, trying to find a weak spot.

"We have to go," Jamie said.

"Hang on," Aaden said. "I just need to get this bandage on."

I looked back. Aaden was wrapping a bandage around Quan's head, covering his injured eye. As I looked, he clipped the ends into place.

"Okay," he said.

I stomped on the accelerator and squealed out of the driveway. The magpie slid up the windscreen and into the air with a surprised squawk.

The road was fine for about five minutes, but once we got into the main roads, it was a nightmare. Cars were crashed or abandoned, blocking lanes. There were bodies everywhere. I tried not to look, but I had to look to avoid them...or decide to run over them. There were lots of animals...and lots of people. I squinted when I looked at the people. I didn't want to see their faces. I didn't want to recognise them.

"This is nuts," I said, as we bumped over another possum. "It's just getting worse."

I could barely drive in a straight line through town. Sometimes, I had to drive on the sidewalk or take a backstreet to pass a pile up. Lots of people had abandoned their cars and made a run for it, their wheels wedged with flesh and fur. Some had been killed in the accidents. They slumped against windows and steering wheels, their cars crumpled against the power pole or tree that killed them. We had to make one big detour around a fallen power pole, the lines spitting sparks across the tarmac.

"It looks like stacks of people tried to get out last night," Dimi said.

"Yeah." Aaden replied. "Not the best move, with so many animals being nocturnal."

"This can't be everyone who left though. Heaps of them must've got somewhere," Dimi said hopefully.

"Has anyone tried checking the news?" Jamie asked.

"We got a little this morning. The inner city's still holding out, but the emergency services pulled back there last night." Quan paused, then continued ominously. "If we don't get underground, we're on our own."

"Stuff that," Jamie said. "We'll get underground."

I gritted my teeth and continued along the nightmare roadscape. It was like something from The Walking Dead, only the dead people didn't move. I wished they did. Zombies would be easier.