Bloodshed (Book One in the Apocalypse Trilogy)

Chapter 3: Road Trip Time

Location: Eureka Tower

Cal

The day after that talk they’d found no food or the day after that. In fact, the only thing they had found was more drugs.

Cal walked into the lobby of the Tower an hour before sunset. Normally he wasn’t this early, but he knew he wouldn’t find more food today. He climbed up the shaft, and banged on the doors to the eighth floor.

Williams cranked the doors open, a surprised look on his face.

“Cal? What are you-“He was cut short when Cal shoved past him and looked around.

“Where’s Johnny?” he demanded.

Williams gestured to the bathroom.

“He’s been puffing away in there all day. I hope you brought more.”

Cal nodded. “Yeah, it’s in the car. Go get him please.”

Williams was about to say something, then turned to the bathroom.

Cal headed to the janitors cabinet and put all the food into a backpack. They wouldn’t need it there. As he started putting all the ammo they had a second backpack, a crash came from the other room. He burst through the door and found Williams on the ground, struggling with Johnny’s hands around his neck.                                                                  “Johnny, stop it you ass! We have enough things trying to kill us without adding ourselves to the list!” Cal put his fist through the mirror in anger. The shards cut his knuckles, and blood dripped to the ground.

For a moment it looked as though Johnny was not going to let go, but ferocity left his expression and his scarred hands released Williams. Williams rolled away, coughing.

Johnny let out a nervous laugh. “Sorry Lyon,” he said. “Don’t take my smokes.”

Williams shot him a dark look and sat up, massaging his throat. He turned to Cal.

“Now that you have our attention, what were you saying?” he rasped.

“We’ve been running out of food. And we’re not finding more anymore. So I decided that we should try our luck somewhere else.”

Johnny and Williams stared blankly at him.

Cal sighed. “I mean leave the city.”

Williams was the first to speak.

“Cal, we’re lucky that Melbourne survived the apocalypse intact, mostly.”                                “Yeah, but none of us have been around Australia since the blasts. For all we know, everywhere else is safe and has food.”

They all doubted that this was the case, but there was almost no food left in Melbourne.

“What if it’s worse outside Melbourne?” Johnny asked.

“Let’s combine what we know and decide where to go,” Cal said. “If you guys agree, of course.”

Williams got up off the floor. “I’m in.”                                                                       Johnny just cackled like a maniac. “Let’s have ourselves a road trip,” he said gleefully.

***

Ten minutes later they had packed their few possessions into some bags and were gathered around a table. Williams had laid a map of Australia that he’d found on the table, and Johnny had a red marker.

“Alright, let’s see,” Cal said. “Brisbane?”

Johnny shook his head. “No, Queensland isn’t there anymore, nuked.” He shaded in a huge area of Queensland with the marker.

“How about Sydney?” he suggested.

Williams answered before anyone else. “Completely overrun,” he said. There was a faint hint of sadness in his voice. “Everyone’s dead there.” Cal almost asked how he knew, but decided against it. Williams had come from there a few years back, and he never spoke of it. Cal suspected that Williams had lost someone back in Sydney.

Johnny put a cross over Sydney.

“Canberra was walled over soon after the outbreak,” Williams said.

No explanation was required for this statement. ‘Walled over’ was the term for cities that had sealed themselves away from the rest of the world, as protection against radiation and zombies. No-one knew what had happened inside the huge domes that covered the cities that had chosen this.

“We could just choose a small town somewhere between cities,” Johnny said.

Cal gave the answer to that. “Nukes wiped out all structures in the middle of the continent. There’s nothing out there but zombies, the rare ghost town and death.”

“Way to brighten the mood, sunshine,” mocked Johnny.

“That leaves Perth and Darwin, then,” Williams said. None of them knew what condition they were in, but the two coast cities were their best chances.

“Which one’s closer?” Johnny asked.

Williams drew a huge circle around the centre of the map.

“This is a huge crater,” Williams explained. “It was made by an experimental bomb to only kill zombies.”

Johnny chuckled. “What a fat lot of good that was.”

Williams ignored that comment and continued. “If we choose Perth, we’d have to drive around it and it’d take weeks to get there. Darwin’s just a straight road from here to there.”

They all decided that Darwin was the best option, and that they would head off in the morning.

***

Sunrise came. None of them had slept in the night, but they were ready for the long journey they had ahead of them. The Jeep was fuelled, and their few positions were packed. Cal climbed into the front seat, and Williams called shotgun; Johnny was in the back so he could smoke. Cal keyed the ignition, but before they could drive Johnny handed Cal a CD.

“Well how do you like that,” he murmured and played it. Soon, they were leaving behind Melbourne and the Tower, with a cloud of red dust and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” trailing after them.