The Honorable Alexander Downer, minister of foreign affairs and the Honorable Mark Vaile, minister of trade, sat down in a badly lit room with the Australian Prime Minister John Howard. All wore expressions of pure concern upon their faces.

"Mister Prime Minister… we have a problem within our borders," began Vaile.

"John, don't whack around the issue. Has the infection spread to our country?" said Howard.

"No! No, no, sir. Nothing nearly that bad. It's the, uh, refugees," Vaile responded.

"I don't see what the hell your problem is with the issue, Vaile. These people need to be here. You know as well as I do that here in Australia is the only safe place to be. It would be a crime not to allow these people to enter our borders," said Downer. "Refusing them entry is nothing short of murder."

"Just because the walkers haven't shown up here yet doesn't mean they won't, Alex! How do you think they got from North America over to Europe?" yelled Vaile.

"Hey! Stop yelling. We won't solve this by yelling," said Howard calmly. "Mark, we aren't going to close the border." Vaile glared at Downer. "However, every plane and boat that comes here will be quarantined five days, each. We are going to be as cautious as possible. We are not going to let the walkers in like Europe and Asia did." Downer nodded.

"That's reasonable."

"Yes."

"Now, for another thing, make sure we get a strong signal on satellite, we are going to broadcast far and wide that Australia is the place to be. That's as much as we can do for them."

"Who?" asked Vaile.

"The poor bastards who aren't already here."

Something clicked within Reuben's head. Something interesting. He reached over to his dashboard, careful not to awaken the sleeping Jaimie. His seeking hand found it's quarry, a rather small walkie-talkie, pulled it over to hid face, and a shaking finger pressed the TALK button.

Pshh. "Hey, Ben?" Pshh.

Pshh. "Yeah, man?" Pshh.

Pshh. "My name is Reuben, in case you were wondering." Pshh.

"Hmmm… Whajoosay?" Jaimie's sleepy eyes cracked open, and she leaned up from her seat, which was reclined almost vertically. She looked out the window, at the thick trees speeding by. Reuben obviously wasn't giving the legally appointed speed limit much thought.

Pshh. "Hey, yeah," said Ben. "I don't think Carrie or me even thought about that." Pshh.

Pshh. "I just wanted to make sure you knew." Pshh.

Pshh. "Okay." Pshh. Reuben then reached back and put the walkie-talkie on the dashboard.

"Are they following right behind us, dad?" asked Jaimie. Reuben nodded. Jaimie unbuckled her seat belt, and crawled into the back seat. She kneeled on the seat, facing backwards, and peered out the back window. Sure enough, a big pair of headlights peered right back at her. Though she couldn't see Ben or Carrie through the bright lights, she knew they could probably see her, so she waved. She noticed a slight movement through the light, which she assumed was Ben or Carrie waving back at her. Jaimie then climbed back into the passenger seat.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked.

"Not too long. It's still the same night it was before. Sorry I woke you up."

"It's okay." A comfortable silence passed between them for a moment, then broke.

"Dad," said Jaimie, "Do you think this is something biblical? Like the apocalypse?"

"You know how I feel about religion, Jaimie," Reuben responded with a slight smirk.

"So you think it's scientific?"

"I think it's a disease. Passed through saliva." Reuben pondered for a moment. "Probably any bodily fluid."

"Maybe it was the terrorists," said Jaimie.

"I doubt it. It would take a long time, and a big team of complicated scientists to synthetically make a drug or bio-weapon that makes people do this. It could have been terrorists, but isn't their style to send a bomber into a large crowd or something quick like that?"

"This spread pretty fast. Considering where the footage we saw earlier was, I think it's spread at least across the whole country. The news said that in some places the national guard wasn't even called upon, it happened so fast."

"I guess you're right, but you know something?"

"What?"

"If it's spread across the whole country, we need to get out of the country. From what I saw, if someone gets bitten, they kind of pass out or something, then when they wake up, they go nuts, but they aren't down for long. I think people would notice someone acting like this on a flight. If we can get to an airport, then we might be all set."

"Tell Ben and Carrie, dad." Jaimie passed the walkie-talkie to her father. He pressed the button,

Pshh. "Hey, guys, Jaimie and I have an idea." Pshh.

Pshh. "Shoot." Pshh. It was Carrie's voice.

Pshh. "We ought to head to that little airport in Middleton." Pshh.

Pshh. "That's a good idea, but where then?" Pshh.

Pshh. "We fly to a bigger airport, and hope to hell it isn't full of uglies." Pshh.

Pshh. "And we board a 747 or something, and fly to some place where there aren't any of the infected?" Pshh.

Pshh. "Yup." Pshh.

Pshh. "Good, good. Middleton is only an hour from here. Let's go. Exit 6." Pshh. Reuben put the walkie-talkie back onto the dashboard. Jaimie yawned and mumbled something about waking her when they were there. She reclined her seat again, and nestled down sideways. A few moments later, she was jolted back up by a sudden swerve Reuben made.

"Shit!" he yelled. "What the fuck is someone doing parked in the middle of the road?" As he said this, a screech, and then a loud bang sounded behind him. "Fuck… shitting fuck," Reuben whispered. Though the seat was still reclined, Jaimie was sitting bolt upright. Reuben pulled the car over to the side of the road, and got out. Looking back down the road, what he saw was the quintessential car crash. Jaimie walked up beside him.

"Oh, no…" she said. "Are they okay?"

"I don't know," said Reuben, and he began jogging towards the wreck.

When he got there, there was no question, both cars were totaled. A few flames leapt from the front of Ben and Carrie's car, and the car that was parked in the road was a few feet away, also with flames licking it's body. Fortunately, the door worked on the driver's side. Ben climbed out, with a slightly stunned look on his face. The flames from under the hood were growing.

"Carrie, get out of the car," said Ben. "Carrie?"

"Yeah… okay… yeah," responded Carrie. She climbed out of the passenger side door.

"There's enough room in my car, guys. We can keep going," said Reuben. The four of them walked back to Reuben's car. They got in, and started driving away. After a few minutes of driving, a huge explosion sounded behind them. A few seconds later, another one.

Jaimie smiled.

"What?" asked Carrie.

"My first explosion."

"Not your last, I bet," said Ben.