CHAPTER 1
Finn watched the few remaining working cars on the highway; she did this every afternoon as most people remaining in the country returned home from work. She sighed and looked to her best friend, who was sitting in her filthy clothes against an old wall. "Anything new, lizz?" Finn yawned and looked to Elizabeth. "Nope, none of these jobs would let some one like us work there..." Lizz trailed off into her usual rant about not being rich and beautiful. Finn was quite plain looking, with naturally straight hair, freckles and big brown eyes, she had a crooked nose from it being broken several times. Lizz on the other hand was a natural beauty with long blond hair, light freckles and gorgeous blue eyes, perfect lips and a small nose.
Finn and Elizabeth had been homeless since they were five; they had become accustom to living out on the streets and had made their makeshift home in a small abandoned house. The house hadn't been deserted long; it was still in tact with only a few broken windows. But it was slightly more run down than the rest. That's what most the houses looked like now. Australia had become over run by foreigners in the early 2000nds, and the already existing cities had been connected; only a few areas were still uninhabited. Not long after Australia had been over built and overpopulated, a ravenous disease spread like wild fire, over 3000 people had died in the first week of the infection; no one knew how to cure it.But the disease was slowly quarantined to a small town called wee jasper in southern NSW. The few surviving people-who could afford it-fled to America or some other desired countries, leaving the streets to the poor and homeless.
Finn stood and walked to the smashed door of the house they were currently occupying, they didn't stay in the same place for long; they preferred to keep on the move, more so to keep them entertained than anything else. "So are we gonna go look around this place?" Finn asked sleepily. "I'd like to find a nice place to sleep..." she disappeared through the door and Elizabeth followed soon after, it would be dark soon and as soon as the sun went down it was almost pitch black, no one had bothered with power after the disease had struck so street lights and technology no longer existed, other than the odd car.
*****
The blurred form of an old battered soccer ball rushed past Tristan's face. "Watch it!" he snapped and stormed off, seven other boys watched Tristan's slim form disappear into a large house they made their permanent residence. Tristan and his gang had roamed the streets of oxenford for nearly 7 years now. They had all been friends of some sort before their parents abandoned them to escape Australia's cruel fate, they had decided to band together in order to survive the harsh treatment of the ever increasing population of broke and homeless. Although every one had a home and was free to roam as they wanted, there were no jobs or any ways of making money other than sending slaves to other countries. The house Tristan's group had claimed was two stories, with a pool and a big enough back yard to play sports or whatever they needed it for. Inside the house was crumbling and in poor condition, the stairs had been completely demolished by time, It had been six-hundred years since the disease had destroyed the once holiday destination.
Tristan stopped in the doorway, just out of sight and leaned heavily on the old walls, his palms pressed against his temples. Since yesterday he had had the worst feeling, like something had been wrenched away from inside his chest. He let out a long breath and headed for the front door. Once outside he relaxed a little and began to walk down the street to where an old sign still read "Buffallo Cres." He looked down the road further and decided to keep walking; he did this often so the rest of his gang wouldn't notice. After a while he stopped to look where he was, there weren't many places he didn't know. Almost immediately he heard the distinct sound of voices, his whole body tensed and he looked in the direction of a small house. The house was even more run down than usual. But it only had a few smashed windows. There was a small balcony, and just within the doorway he could make out the small flickering light of a candle. "Hmmm...I wonder...." He said to himself and moved silently to the balcony; pulling himself up swiftly and looking for a safe spot too look in.
"Shhhh" someone hissed from the other side of the window and Tristan froze. He'd been caught.
"who's there?" the voice said again.
Tristan could now tell that the owner of the voice was a girl.he had never encounterd anouther person in the area and wondered just how long they had been there for.
