Disclaimer: I am not John Marsden...duh! This is the second generation of his books,
AN: I think this is all im going to write so review plz!!!
CHAPTER 1
Why us, why did it have to be us. That is one thing I can't understand. Amoungst all my disbeliefs this has to be the strongest.It could have happened to anyone else, but it happened to be us. I'm writing this to help myself understand what's happened. It's too much for me to comprehend all in one go so I hope if I get this down on paper it will make more sense. Ok, this is what happened right from the beginning. If I don't start from the beginning I'll never get this done. I was sitting in the classroom, listening to Mr Samuals my English teacher. He was talking about the new student who was due to arrive in about five minutes. No one was listening to him, we were all talking quietly amoungst ourselves. I was talking to my friends Charlotte and Sara about what we were going to do when we finished school. We decided we would travel to Europe and if we liked it enough we would move there for good. While we were talking, the new boy Andrew walked into the classroom. As soon as he walked in I think at least half of the girls had their eyes fixed on him. I can't really blame them he is cute but he isn't that cute. He was looking all around the class as if we were the dullest bunch of people he had ever seen. We probably were, I mean we weren't alive with joy or anything. We were just your average bunch of teenages.
"Andrew you can sit over there" said Mr Samuals said pointing to an empty desk in between me and Charlotte. Charlotte gave me one of those "I'll do the talking" winks and volenteered to show Andrew round the school at break. Just at that moment the bell rang and we got up and left to go to break. When we got outside Charlotte said "Hi I'm Charlotte but you can call my Carly and these are my friends Sara & Violet" "Hi" said Andrew. We took Andrew on a tour around the school It didn't take long at all. The rest of the school day did though, it was so boring. The only highlight was when Carly announced to the class she was going to have a party on Friday. We couldn't wait. Other than that the day was really boring and when the bell rang at the end of the day I was so relieved. Carly rang me that night and asked me if I could sleep over at her house with some other friends after the party "Who else is staying?" I asked "Well You, Me, Sara, Andie, and Mike if you all can that is" "I can come but isn't that Saturday the voting day or something" "Yeah but because everyone I asked to sleep over in under age to vote we don't have a problem" "OK see you there, bye" "bye". The rest of the week was so boring the was nothing good about it until on friday at the party.
We all basically were having fun I was talking to Mike in the corner of the room & Carly was hitting on Andie but I don't think he was very interested in her he was staring at Sara dancing with this guy called Peter who she met at work experience and is her new boyfriend. The party ended quickly with everyone having to get some sleep so they could all go voting tommorrow. Lucky us because practically everyone else in the year had to go and because we are only 17 we don't have to until next year so we can stay and party. Although Peter is old enough to vote he 'forgot' and stayed with Sara and they got into a romantic session on the couch in the other room.
The rest of us didn't do much we talked and danced until midnight. At midnight we had to go to bed we were so tired so we wandered up to the attic where we were sleeping. We all carried our own blankets and pillows up and get ready for bed. I didn't sleep much that night I don't know why, it was some wierd feeling I don't know what though it was very scary and I was thinking alot maybe that was why I told Mike about it I didn't have to but I thought he cared I thought he wanted to know. "What's wrong?" Mike asked "You've been very tense all night" "Have I? I haven't noticed
"Well you have, what is it" "Probably nothing" "Tell me, you should tell someone and I'm here already" "Ok It's just this feeling that I have like I'm anxious to get home or something. I worried that something bad will happen to everybody while their out voting, Like they'll all dissapear and we'll be the only ones left on the planet" I think from that moment on Mike has thought I was wierd I mean I know I am and all my friends know I am but he thinks I really am and he doesn't know me very well. All he did was smile nicely and walk off to join Carly and Andie trying to light a fire in the old fireplace we found behind some old mattresses. Sara was still downstairs making out with Peter they sure were having fun.
I don't think they came up at all that night because they weren't on their mattresses in the morning. After we lit the fire it was about 2 am and we found it hard just to get the energy to get into bed and go to sleep. For some reason I woke up early the next morning I'm not sure what time it was but i think it was about 6 am. Everybody else was asleep and we had made the agreement that the first person up would have to make breakfast for the other 5, so I stumbled down stairs and went looking to see if they were awake yet and I found them playing twister in the living room. They looked happy enough so I left them to do that and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. It took ages to find everything and so I took ages to make breakfast but I figured that everyone would be awake by the time I finished. I made pancakes for us four huge ones each. When I was walking up the stairs to the attic I heard a car come up the driveway I didn't regester it because It was so normal, boy was I wrong. Anyway I walked upstairs and found everyone talking about things that were really embarrasing for them.
'I've been at 7 different schools since I was little and when I started highschool at a new school the teacher made us all get up in front of the whole class and tell everyone where we were born and what our parents did for a living. Of course I was born here in Australia but both my parents were out of work at the moment and I got teased about it until I left the school.' that was Andie talking.
At that moment in time everyone was listening to Andie with such undivided attention that we didn't notice all the noise coming from downstairs where Sara and Peter were, but we did notice that sound, well two sounds and a smell. Peter had just finished his story when we heard the first sound it was a gun shot. It was an automatic rifle. I was sure of that when I smelled it, has an unmistakeable smell you never ever want to smell. Then we heard the second sound it was a girls scream. It was coming from downstairs, we ran like hell to the stairs but then we hesitated the other people we assumed were down with our friends were not friendly people they could be murderers trying to kill us. If we go down now we don't have much of a chance if they've got our friends It would be better for us to hide and try to call the police after they leave rather than them taking all of us. I heard a car door slam so I rushed to the window to have a look there they were already getting into their getaway car. As they drove up the street I saw Sara look back she had an awful cut across her face which was bleeding. She saw me and mouthed me a message, she said HELP US. I couldn't let then leave I had to help.I ran downstairs and picked up the phone. I started dialing I didn't realise until I'd finished that the phone was disconected. I scowered the floor looking for the cord It was connected. I left the others and as quick as I could i ran across the street to the Wilson's, they were out voting but i knew where the spare key was and I went in and checked their phone. It was dead too. We had been warned that the people would try and invade us again, that's why we all had separate phone systems. If one was out, that was okay but if yours and next doors was out they might be coming. The second thing we were supposed to check was the power, i turned on the tv but it didn't work. I pressed the button 5 times before Carly came and stopped me. By this time we were both crying because we knew what out fate might be. Carly hugged me and everyone came into house. I sat down on the Wilson's sofa Mike sat next to me. We had all heard the story that my mother Ellie went through. She was camping in the bush with her friends when their invasion came. We all know that three of her friends died before the war ended and we don't want the same thing to happen to us.
"Maybe the phones are just out for a little while and it was a coincidence" said Mike "We shouldn't think the worst just yet" But so much had happened that pointed to this, only a few days before our politicians were talking about our country's defence, or lack of defence. We were brought prepared for this day, everyone new it would come sometime, but they had no idea when. We were brought up to fight for our land, so we would.
AN: I think this is all im going to write so review plz!!!
CHAPTER 1
Why us, why did it have to be us. That is one thing I can't understand. Amoungst all my disbeliefs this has to be the strongest.It could have happened to anyone else, but it happened to be us. I'm writing this to help myself understand what's happened. It's too much for me to comprehend all in one go so I hope if I get this down on paper it will make more sense. Ok, this is what happened right from the beginning. If I don't start from the beginning I'll never get this done. I was sitting in the classroom, listening to Mr Samuals my English teacher. He was talking about the new student who was due to arrive in about five minutes. No one was listening to him, we were all talking quietly amoungst ourselves. I was talking to my friends Charlotte and Sara about what we were going to do when we finished school. We decided we would travel to Europe and if we liked it enough we would move there for good. While we were talking, the new boy Andrew walked into the classroom. As soon as he walked in I think at least half of the girls had their eyes fixed on him. I can't really blame them he is cute but he isn't that cute. He was looking all around the class as if we were the dullest bunch of people he had ever seen. We probably were, I mean we weren't alive with joy or anything. We were just your average bunch of teenages.
"Andrew you can sit over there" said Mr Samuals said pointing to an empty desk in between me and Charlotte. Charlotte gave me one of those "I'll do the talking" winks and volenteered to show Andrew round the school at break. Just at that moment the bell rang and we got up and left to go to break. When we got outside Charlotte said "Hi I'm Charlotte but you can call my Carly and these are my friends Sara & Violet" "Hi" said Andrew. We took Andrew on a tour around the school It didn't take long at all. The rest of the school day did though, it was so boring. The only highlight was when Carly announced to the class she was going to have a party on Friday. We couldn't wait. Other than that the day was really boring and when the bell rang at the end of the day I was so relieved. Carly rang me that night and asked me if I could sleep over at her house with some other friends after the party "Who else is staying?" I asked "Well You, Me, Sara, Andie, and Mike if you all can that is" "I can come but isn't that Saturday the voting day or something" "Yeah but because everyone I asked to sleep over in under age to vote we don't have a problem" "OK see you there, bye" "bye". The rest of the week was so boring the was nothing good about it until on friday at the party.
We all basically were having fun I was talking to Mike in the corner of the room & Carly was hitting on Andie but I don't think he was very interested in her he was staring at Sara dancing with this guy called Peter who she met at work experience and is her new boyfriend. The party ended quickly with everyone having to get some sleep so they could all go voting tommorrow. Lucky us because practically everyone else in the year had to go and because we are only 17 we don't have to until next year so we can stay and party. Although Peter is old enough to vote he 'forgot' and stayed with Sara and they got into a romantic session on the couch in the other room.
The rest of us didn't do much we talked and danced until midnight. At midnight we had to go to bed we were so tired so we wandered up to the attic where we were sleeping. We all carried our own blankets and pillows up and get ready for bed. I didn't sleep much that night I don't know why, it was some wierd feeling I don't know what though it was very scary and I was thinking alot maybe that was why I told Mike about it I didn't have to but I thought he cared I thought he wanted to know. "What's wrong?" Mike asked "You've been very tense all night" "Have I? I haven't noticed
"Well you have, what is it" "Probably nothing" "Tell me, you should tell someone and I'm here already" "Ok It's just this feeling that I have like I'm anxious to get home or something. I worried that something bad will happen to everybody while their out voting, Like they'll all dissapear and we'll be the only ones left on the planet" I think from that moment on Mike has thought I was wierd I mean I know I am and all my friends know I am but he thinks I really am and he doesn't know me very well. All he did was smile nicely and walk off to join Carly and Andie trying to light a fire in the old fireplace we found behind some old mattresses. Sara was still downstairs making out with Peter they sure were having fun.
I don't think they came up at all that night because they weren't on their mattresses in the morning. After we lit the fire it was about 2 am and we found it hard just to get the energy to get into bed and go to sleep. For some reason I woke up early the next morning I'm not sure what time it was but i think it was about 6 am. Everybody else was asleep and we had made the agreement that the first person up would have to make breakfast for the other 5, so I stumbled down stairs and went looking to see if they were awake yet and I found them playing twister in the living room. They looked happy enough so I left them to do that and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. It took ages to find everything and so I took ages to make breakfast but I figured that everyone would be awake by the time I finished. I made pancakes for us four huge ones each. When I was walking up the stairs to the attic I heard a car come up the driveway I didn't regester it because It was so normal, boy was I wrong. Anyway I walked upstairs and found everyone talking about things that were really embarrasing for them.
'I've been at 7 different schools since I was little and when I started highschool at a new school the teacher made us all get up in front of the whole class and tell everyone where we were born and what our parents did for a living. Of course I was born here in Australia but both my parents were out of work at the moment and I got teased about it until I left the school.' that was Andie talking.
At that moment in time everyone was listening to Andie with such undivided attention that we didn't notice all the noise coming from downstairs where Sara and Peter were, but we did notice that sound, well two sounds and a smell. Peter had just finished his story when we heard the first sound it was a gun shot. It was an automatic rifle. I was sure of that when I smelled it, has an unmistakeable smell you never ever want to smell. Then we heard the second sound it was a girls scream. It was coming from downstairs, we ran like hell to the stairs but then we hesitated the other people we assumed were down with our friends were not friendly people they could be murderers trying to kill us. If we go down now we don't have much of a chance if they've got our friends It would be better for us to hide and try to call the police after they leave rather than them taking all of us. I heard a car door slam so I rushed to the window to have a look there they were already getting into their getaway car. As they drove up the street I saw Sara look back she had an awful cut across her face which was bleeding. She saw me and mouthed me a message, she said HELP US. I couldn't let then leave I had to help.I ran downstairs and picked up the phone. I started dialing I didn't realise until I'd finished that the phone was disconected. I scowered the floor looking for the cord It was connected. I left the others and as quick as I could i ran across the street to the Wilson's, they were out voting but i knew where the spare key was and I went in and checked their phone. It was dead too. We had been warned that the people would try and invade us again, that's why we all had separate phone systems. If one was out, that was okay but if yours and next doors was out they might be coming. The second thing we were supposed to check was the power, i turned on the tv but it didn't work. I pressed the button 5 times before Carly came and stopped me. By this time we were both crying because we knew what out fate might be. Carly hugged me and everyone came into house. I sat down on the Wilson's sofa Mike sat next to me. We had all heard the story that my mother Ellie went through. She was camping in the bush with her friends when their invasion came. We all know that three of her friends died before the war ended and we don't want the same thing to happen to us.
"Maybe the phones are just out for a little while and it was a coincidence" said Mike "We shouldn't think the worst just yet" But so much had happened that pointed to this, only a few days before our politicians were talking about our country's defence, or lack of defence. We were brought prepared for this day, everyone new it would come sometime, but they had no idea when. We were brought up to fight for our land, so we would.