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Chapter 9: Relief

"Mum!" I say, tears welling up in my eyes. "Thank goodness your alright!"

"Jayden?" she says, probably thinking that I was dead.

"Yeah it's me!" I say.

"Oh my god! I thought you were dead! where are you?" she asked, a crying sound came from the other end of the phone.

"I'm still in Melbourne".

"How did you survive?" she asks.

"Well I was heading to the shops when I saw Ally. She was heading there too, so we went together. When we got there we saw Ed and Rachel talking together so we joined them. Then we heard gunshots and screaming, followed by the military heading our way, so we ran inside the shopping centre. Some of the soldiers were chasing us, so we went to the carpark and his there until they were gone" I say.

"Wow" she says.

"So," I say, "Where are you and how did you survive?"

"Well, about fifteen minutes after you left, I got in the car and started driving to work when I heard the gunshots and screaming. I thought about going to get you, but the shops were in the direction of the gunshots, so I made the terrible decision to leave you and drive away from the city".

"So where are you now?"

"I'm in the outskirts of Sydney, I got there before they installed road blocks and began surveying for drivers".

"Okay" I say, "Well we just got some cars from a dealership and are about to drive to Sydney".

"Be careful, I think I'll pick you guys up and take you. They said that people who live in Sydney can leave, but they are given a pass to stick to your windscreen to let them back in. Unless you have that, they kill you on sight".

"Okay" I say again, "We'll get driving and we can meet up about twenty kilometres out of Sydney, just in case they have scouts a few kilometres away surveying the area".

"Sounds great" she says.

"Oh and I should tell you, we have guns just incase they see us...we don't want to get killed".

"It's all cool".

"Jayden what's taking so long?" I hear Brayden's voice say from outside.

"Sorry got to go".

"Okay I'll see you soon" she says, "Love you".

"Love you too" I say as I hang up.

I walk outside and hand everybody their keys.

"Sorry about the wait," I say "I couldn't find where the keys were." They all seem to believe me and just nod.

"So, should we go get some food and water before we leave? It is about a ten hour drive", I say.

"Okay" everybody says.

We hop in our cars and drive to a nearby food store. I drive and Ellen sits in the passenger seat, looking into the distance. When we get there, we get some sandwiches and some water bottles before we hit the road.

"Everybody ready?" Ed says, looking at the group. After a few nods and agreements, we get back into our cars and begin to drive. After about five minutes of driving, Ellen says to me:

"Umm...well" she sounded nervous. "Would you like to....go out with me?"