Chapter One

Finally, we were home from our year-long trip around Europe. It was so good to be back home, I was excited to tell my dad and mum about the trip, the things we saw and what we did. Vincent had pulled into our street and I couldn't help but frown when I noticed the street was silent, barely any cars we're parked in the driveway not to mention items were scattered everywhere along the road, sidewalk and even in front of houses.

"What happened here? It looks like a riot that never stopped" Vincent asked as he pulled into his driveway.

"I don't know but hopefully our parents are home so we can ask them," I said as I opened the door and stepped out.

I pulled out my phone to see if I had any messages but there wasn't any, not even an 'are you coming home today' message. On top of that my phone had the no signal bar on the top which was weird considering, we live right near a Telstra phone line.

"Does your phone say no signal too?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah, come on," I said.

Vincent nodded and followed me towards my house, I grabbed my keys placing them in the lock turning it clockwise and slowly turned the knob to open the front door. Once I stepped inside, I couldn't help but gasp at the sight, everything was everywhere not to mention bullet holes in the wall and blood on the floor.

"What the hell?" Vincent asked as we slowly walked through my house.

My parents weren't in sight but I still wanted to check the rooms or even for a note to explain what the hell was going on. I walked into the lounge room to see shards of glass from the broken window and a broken lamp on the side. On the table, there was a piece of paper which I picked up and began to read.

'Dear my beloved daughter and Vincent,
I know you'll be wondering what is going on why everything is so bare, you see a month after you left for your trip the country started having sightings of Zombies roaming the streets, by the first week over 120,000 people were infected and more kept being infected. Your mother and I did our best to fend for ourselves and left with a group of survivors towards Mildura there is a dairy farm that we are going to be staying at, please find a way here. We don't know how many Zombies are roaming the streets, we want you both to be safe. I kept a gun in your bedroom locked in your chest with a few grenades, don't be afraid to use them and remember the combat training we did together it will come in handy
Love from mum and dad'

"Holy shit" Vincent gasped as he was reading the letter too.

I placed the letter in my pocket before heading to my old bedroom and opened my chest, my parents and I were the only ones who had a key. I grabbed the gun and grenades placing them in the old school backpack that was next to me.

"Alright we need to fill up with whatever is left, tinned food, water and then we'll head to your house alright," I said.

Vincent nodded, we ventured into the kitchen opening the cupboards and grabbed whatever tinned food was there, even some cookies that weren't open plus a few bottles of water. Once the bag was filled with everything, we headed towards Vincent's house doing what we did in my house and checked every room.

I noticed Vincent had stopped walking and was looking at something, I could see a few tears forming in his eyes.

"Vincent" I whispered as I walked up behind him and gasped as I saw his mother lying on the floor a bullet to the head with a bite mark on her neck. "Oh my God, Vincent I'm so sorry."

Vincent slowly broke down into tears before turning to me and hugging me, I hugged back instantly and rubbed his back trying to soothe him.

"We should get going" I whispered feeling him nod.

"I know, just let me see what I can get from the house," Vincent said quietly as he pulled away and ventured further down the hall.

I grabbed a blanket from the couch and slowly placed it over Vincent's mother Vanessa. I know this was hard for Vincent as him and his mother were close after their dad left when he was 2 they grew close. Vanessa was a sweet woman and when Vincent came out gay she was supportive, she told him as long as you find the one and are happy then I wouldn't care but if the boy hurts you I will rip off his dick.

"It seems my mum had left some weapons for me as well, I got everything I could. We should probably get going now, the suns going down and I don't want to be here when it does" Vincent's voice rang through the hallway.

I nodded and headed out the door with Vincent, we both climbed into the car, Vincent starting it a few seconds later not long after that we heard a growl from beside us. I looked out the window to see Zombies surrounding us.

"Go! Go! Go!" I shouted as Vincent who nodded while backing into a few zombies killing them and ran over a few as fast as he could.

I grabbed the atlas from the glovebox and began searching for Mildura Dairy Farm. "Alright, we need to head down the northern expressway than we need to turn onto Sturt highway we need to stay onto the A20."

Vincent nodded and indicated to go left to head down the northern expressway. "How far is Mildura?"

"I think 4 hours, we might need to steal some petrol as well and keep our lights down low when it gets dark" I replied placing a mark in the Altas so I knew what page to come back on if we got lost. "We can swap over when you get tired, I'm just glad our suitcases are still in the boot so we can change if we need too."

Vincent laughed a little and nodded, "Yeah that is good."

****

We arrived in Mildura four hours later, we were trying to find the dairy farm, it was about 11 pm, there weren't many lights in the area and we didn't want to attract any zombies.

"Look there is a sign it might be the dairy farm. We should get out and walk, grab what we..." I had to stop talking because 6 men ran towards the car with their guns.

"Hands up, out of the car now!" One of them shouted

Vincent and I slowly exited the car before we were checked for bite marks but there wasn't any.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" A man asked as he stepped towards us?

"I'm Monika and this is my friend Vincent, we just arrived back in Adelaide four hours ago after a year-long trip around Europe, my father told us to meet him here" my voice was shaky.

The man hummed, "Alright bring them in, whose your father?" The man asked.

"Peter.... Peter Galigar," I said.

"Monika darling" I heard my dads voice as he came into view.

"Dad" I ran towards him and hugged him tightly feeling his arms wrap around me. "We brought some food, medication, fuel and ammonium, its in the boot of the car."

Dad nodded, "William she said they've brought some stuff from our home, it's in the boot of their car."

William nodded, "Alright grab what you two can and I'll give you a tour of the place."

I nodded and walked towards the trunk opening it up and grabbed out suitcases and boxes filled with supplies. Vincent grabbed what he could dropping them near the gate so others could grab them.

"Where's Diane?" Vincent asked my dad who sighed.

"On our way here we were attacked by a few evil men, they weren't zombies they were human and they shot a few people Diane included. She died instantly" Dad explained.

"Unfortunately in this world now everyone will be killed Zombie or not but we will try and make it out together," William said. "Now let's get this tour dons, you both will be assigned to something as everyone around here does their share."

****

I was looking through the medicine cabinet as I was assigned to help with the wounded and also to go out on scouting missions, working in a pharmacy helped my knowledge with what we may need if I was called to go out.

"What are you doing?" A voice came behind me making me jump and turn. "Sorry about that I'm Crystal. I work here in the medical tent"

"It's alright I'm Monika, I just got assigned to work with you. I was just writing what you may need, I used to work in a pharmacy so I have a good mind of what we may need" I smiled at Crystal.

"Wonderful at least I have someone who knows what they are doing. I was learnt medical training from first aid in Tafe but that's about it" Crystal laughed.

"If you don't mind me asking but how did you arrive?" I asked I was curious to know how everyone arrived, everyone has a different story.

"Well when the plague broke out, my mother was one of the very first ones to get bitten. My older brother William, shot her before she could hurt any of us and we gathered a few survivors and headed here" Crystal said.

"I'm sorry about your mum, so your brother is the leader then?" I asked

Crystal nodded, "Yeah he is and don't be sorry about my mum, I'm glad she's gone she wasn't a nice person. Since my brother is the leader I'm sort of stuck here so he can protect me which annoys me."

"I guess it's good having that, i had a little brother but he died when he was 5 from cancer. I'd give anything to see him again or just protect him" I said.

Crystal smiled sadly, "Well count me as a friend, we all need to stay close and protect one another." With that she walked away.

I took her words and let it sink in slowly and finally coming to grasp that I was stuck in a zombie apocalypse.