The Ruined Ones

Chapter One

"Go grab your keys, honey," Shaun said to Katrina, gently squeezing his wife's arm, trying to break the spell. She stared blankly at the television screen after witnessing a reporter killed on live television amongst a scene of utter chaos downtown. Her hands were clasped firmly on her belly, which was not yet showing any sign of the eight-week-old fetus growing inside her.

Shaun tried to imagine what was going through her mind—he had an idea—but the thought was fleeting. No time to stand around procrastinating. They'd wasted enough time watching the news report as it was. They at least now had a translucent image of what was happening, but that didn't change the fact that the broken fusillades of gunfire were getting closer. The smell of smoke and cordite in the air was getting stronger.

Shaun put his hands on his wife's shoulders; he could feel she was shaking.

"We need to go—now, Kat. Get the keys."

She simply nodded but didn't move.

"Kat," Shaun urged, raising his voice slightly and giving her a gentle shake. Tears fell from her eyes as she tore them away from the television screen to look at her husband. "I don't know where your car keys are. You need to get them."

"Okay," she whispered.

Shaun's brother, Lewis, and their father, Alfred, were already waiting at the door for them. They had been celebrating Shaun's thirtieth birthday at his father's house, but when the first loud explosion sounded from downtown, the barbeque and the cake were abandoned. Now here they were, fleeing the house and the city where they lived, to get away from the chaos that had so suddenly erupted in their hometown. Chaos that would surely reach them soon.

Katrina's Landcruiser was parked on the street. Shaun had always wondered why she wanted a big car like that. He often suggested she downgrade to something smaller and easier on fuel but Katrina liked the car. She'd grown up on a farm, and her family had always driven them, so it was what she was used to.

Shaun was grateful for it now. He knew they were going to need this big vehicle. A small car that couldn't go offroad wasn't going to cut it now.

Katrina grabbed her handbag as they ran for the door, but they collected nothing else. They simply left.

Just as they reached the car, they heard a loud crunch just up the street behind them. Moments later, the yelling started.

"Christ! Weren't you looking where you were going?"

"Were you?"

"You backed into me, idiot!"

They didn't stop to watch the spectacle as Alfred's next-door neighbour and some other guy argued about whose fault it was their two cars collided.

The street Alfred lived on, where he had raised Shaun and Lewis, was a busy one, so they found themselves weaving in and out of traffic to avoid car accidents and people parked on the side of the street, packing their belongings into their cars.

Shaun quickly turned off down a side street, making his way south; heading for the outskirts of town. He drove as fast as he could. No one inside the car said a word. The only sounds were the occasional sniffles coming from Katrina, who sat beside Shaun crying, her head leaning against the passenger window with her hands laced together over her stomach.

He focused only on the road; only on getting his family out of town safely.

He noticed the burning house they drove past as they turned onto the next street, although, about a hundred meters further up the road, he didn't see the woman hunched over the bleeding body of a man on the footpath. Nor did he see the two men fleeing the scene, one holding a knife that was painted with blood, the other holding a bag they stole from their victim. Katrina saw.

He hit the brakes hard when a boy no older than fifteen rode his pushbike across the road directly ahead of them, sending his heart into a chaotic rhythm. Katrina called out and began to cry even more.

Shaun just kept driving.

A million thoughts raced through his mind.

What the hell was going on?

What the hell did these people really want to do to the world?