James' urgency could not be ignored, I ran back inside, grabbed a rucksack, and stuffed it with clothes and shoes and anything I thought important. I poured batteries into a plastic bag, and grabbed the first aid kit and all the medication under the sink. James stood by the car pacing, while Michael and Nick grabbed their gear from around the house, Nicks bag was in the guest room with David's writhing corpse, so I grabbed extra things for him to use. After about ten minutes of rummaging through all of my belongings, James' car horn started blasting from the driveway again. Michael called out from the veranda "Fuck! Fuck! Guys hurry up" I hooked the bags over my shoulder, and called to Nick to get out the front. The site in my small suburban street was one I will remember for the rest of my life. Hundreds of corpses were walking up the street, some limping, some missing limbs, or with their innards spilling from their chest. All gnashing, all coming straight for us. I ran down the stairs of the veranda, and opened the boot, Nick got it in the car whilst James revved the engine to life, Michael helped me cram everything we had into the boot, and we climbed into the car. Looking out the window, the entire left side of my street was blocked with walking dead. James reversed down the slope, and faced the opposite direction, headed for the main road. We pulled out of the drive and watched behind, as the hoards of the dead crawled, clambered and pursued us out of the avenue.
"What is happening!" Cried Nick from the front passenger seat, his rifle cradled in his hands like a new love. "How could this of happened over night!?" he protested. "Do you ever watch the fucking news man?, How would you know what's been happening, we spent the last twenty four hours blind off our faces! What would we know?" I spat back at him from the backseat, half turned, looking back at the place where my old house still stood.
James drove steadily up onto the main road, cars were pulled over, parked lengthways across the streets, a fire truck stood abandoned up ahead at the intersection, it's sirens still spinning and wailing, the fire hose pouring streams of water down the road, as if its occupants had been ripped from the world. "Liv rang last night, remember?" James suddenly spoke as we passed a McDonalds and headed further south along the main road, walkers could be seen roaming the car park and the restaurants interior. "Macca's Run?" joked Michael as we drove on by. James turned around in his seat, "Liv, you know, my fiancé?" His face was red, and he was tearing up. Michael coughed down an embarrassed laugh, "Sorry man, what did she have to say?" His sarcastic assumption that it was of unimportance was coolly miscalculated. "She called me screaming Michael, I checked my messages in the morning before the lines dropped out, luckily. One of her friends had come over, and she was sick… and her friend… her friend fucking bit her man. That's where I went this morning. All the way to fucking Penrith to her house, by then it was already chaos, I could see these dead freaks roaming the streets, cops were shooting everyone who came close. When I arrived at her house, I opened the door, and I saw her collapsed on the stairs, her leg was broken, it seemed like she'd fallen down the stairs as she…..as she turned. I knew it was too late man, but I couldn't, I couldn't leave her, and she got up and came straight at me, like a devil, like a wild animal. I had to beat her head on the wall to keep her away. I panicked, and left for the car as she limped out of the front door behind me, she was covered in blood. I was going to marry her… and she's gone." James finished, his tears flowing freely down his face. Michael sat quieter than death in the back seat, swallowing his guilt. "Pull over up here James" I said to him, and we passed over a hill and caught site of a petrol station, he pulled into one of fuelling stations, pumps strewn all over the ground, a car crashed right through the sliding doors, it looked looted quite recently.
James got out and started punching his door with his already bloodied hands, I grabbed him and held him, and he struggled for a moment in his anger and grief, I felt his pain as I held him still. Michael remained in the car, head in his hands. "I'm sorry man, I'm so so sorry" I spoke to James as he wept. Another car appeared over the hill on the road, honking and flashing its lights as it approached, swerving erratically. James turned to look, as did I, and the car suddenly veered and turned sideways and began to roll down the slope towards us, the windshield shattering as it rotated and bowled faster and faster, and then it took one final plunge into the tar road, inverted and broken, fuel began pouring from the engine. The wheels still spinning, and smoke pluming out from its underbelly. We could see the driver, a walker, writhing in its set, pressing the accelerator as it struggled to escape its bindings. Then we saw her, a young girl, about seventeen, James' ran towards the car, it seemed he spied her too, and as the door was badly indented, we kicked out the window and James, ignoring the biting and bruised driver climbed in. "She's alive" he called from inside. She awoke with a start as he tried to cut free her seatbelt with a pen knife he carried on his keychain. "It's ok, It's ok, trust me" Her eyes were fixed on him, and the driver was slowly getting a better reach into the rear seats. I called to Nick who was busy inside the petrol station shop, looking for cigarettes no doubt, and he climbed over the car that blocked the sliding doors, rifle in hand. James cut through the last strap of the seatbelt, and slowly eased the girl the right way up, she was screaming loudly, and the driver suddenly grabbed James' leg, pulling his ankle with brute force towards is blooded mouth. Suddenly it exploded in a flash of red, and glass shattered everywhere. Michael had gotten out of the car and loaded the shotgun, shattering the glass and killing the biter in one shot. The girl began hyperventilating, her eyes rolling around in her head and I helped James get her out from under the car. Nick arrived at the car side, a large pack of cigarettes in his hand and a huge nine litre keg of water. "Fuck me!" he cried, as he saw the splattered remnants of the front passenger of the overturned car, and suddenly vomit sprayed from his mouth and her turned away dropping his loot on the ground as he spluttered.
James hooked the girls arm on one shoulder, and I hooked the other, and I grabbed the keg of water that Nick dropped, and we took her to the side of our car. I unscrewed the large cap on the top of the keg, and poured the water onto a piece of cloth, which I ripped from my shirt. I dampened it and dabbed the girls head gently, she stirred, in shock and distress. James sat next to her, with his arm gently placed around her shoulder, patting her hair back away from her face.
Michael stayed over the corpse of the driver of the car wreck, his hands shaking as he observed the first walker he ever killed, it would not be the last.