Angela Russell's Story

Angela collapsed onto the couch and pushed off her shoes. She was exhausted after having flown all the way from Australia to be here. She looked around at her brother Andrew's place. It was pretty small, but there were signs of Andrew's presence everywhere: muddy boots in the corner, a fishing rod leant against the wall and an esky by the door. His girlfriend must be elsewhere tonight, else he would have been ordered to clear up his mess.

“Beer?” He offered.

“Yeah, cheers.” She replied.

She took the bottle from him and attempted to twist off the cap. She quickly realised that it wasn’t a twist off and reached into her handbag. She retrieved her set of keys and used the bottle opener keyring. She took a long swig and sighed. She had decided to try to stay awake for as long as possible in order to adjust to the time difference, but right now that seemed highly unlikely.

Andrew sat down beside her and flicked on the TV. A news program came on.

“Ugh, not the news.” She groaned before lifting her bottle to her lips to take another drink. The newscaster was talking about some epidemic, probably some typical trash media scaremongering. She rolled her eyes and leant forward to grab the remote control. Flicking through the channels revealed that the same report was on every channel.

Maybe it's serious…she thought to herself. Her eyelids had grown heavy and she found herself shaking herself awake as she tried to pay attention. It was no use however, as she slipped into sleep shortly after.

Thought || Speech || NPC Speech

Angela awoke in the back seat of a moving vehicle. She blinked a few times and looked around. It was her brother’s Toyota Hilux.

“Andrew?” She said wearily.

“I’m here.” He replied.

“S’going on?” She asked.

“Uh… Going camping.”

Well that was an obvious lie. She thought to herself. Though there was a lot of camping stuff in the car, but what sort of camping trip couldn’t wait for her to wake up? She felt concerned, Andrew didn’t tend to play pranks or keep things from her.

She had a snack from the backpack that Andrew had prepared and then climbed into the front seat. Time to investigate. She clipped on her seatbelt and picked up Andrew’s phone. He objected, but couldn’t do much to stop her while he was driving.

He was relieved when Angela stated aloud that his bloody phone wouldn’t load any webpages. She decided to check his messages. The most recent one was from his girlfriend. It seemed like they were having a fight. Angela was tempted but resisted the urge to snoop further into that one.

The next message was from emergency services. It urged people to evacuate due to a rapidly spreading virus that causes people to become aggressive and bite people. Zombies…? This can’t be for real. Angela wasn’t sure she believed it, but the message made her stomach turn. She felt restless. She reached forward and opened the glovebox. She squeaked and closed it immediately. There was a gun in there.

“What the hell…” Angela muttered. “For killing zombies?”

Andrew was silent for a moment before replying. “It’s actually Ella’s, but yes.”

They didn’t say another word to each other for the remainder of the journey. Angela was still feeling exhausted, so she tried to sleep. It was useless, however, as worried thoughts had overtaken her mind. She was scared.

They stopped some way up a mountain and got out of the car. Other people had started to gather here as well. Angela stepped out of the car and immediately felt the weight of her own body. She was still frustratingly jetlagged. She shuffled along in her trackpants and t-shirt, feeling suddenly aware of how terrible she must look.

She overheard a man yelling at his wife. His kids were right there, watching and hearing everything. Angela wandered closer. The man seemed to be drunk. She couldn’t just stand there and watch this poor woman be berated like that.

“Why are you yelling at her?” Angela asked loudly. She walked up to stand beside the woman.

"None of your fuck'n business." He replied aggressively. Angela realised that attempting to reason with a drunk man was probably not likely to work...

He caught glimpses of a girl looking at him from a truck every now and then and all he could offer was a poor excuse for a smile. Wyatt was weighed down by the whole virus taking over people and a genuine smile was too much of a task to conquer at the present time. He wished he could provide some reassurance or accept hers but he had a lot of navigation on his plate. Wyatt's gaze returned upon the outlook leaving the rest of the world to fade to the background. Wyatt often appreciated good views but how much longer would this one last?

He was disturbed by a new commotion, turning his head to see another woman engaged with the sloppy aggressive drunk. He turned his full body this time, distrusting the man with strangers that intervened with good intentions. Wyatt approached cautiously as means of back-up and nothing else. He still preferred not to get involved but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t. ”Hey, that’s enough man. We’re all having a tough time here.” Wyatt looked to the other girl and gestured off, which was her invitation to accept or refuse. She didn't have to walk off with Wyatt. It was just wise to leave the drunken fool be.

Wyatt found himself drifting over to a woman that was in some combat gear and worked in some store he was familiar with. Wyatt didn't sit 100% on the store though but something convenient and handy that he appreciated. But she looked like she belonged in the army, out there fighting back zoms already. "Do you think they can smell us or detect our body heat up here?" His gaze rested on the ground and he twitched uncomfortably feeling it unfair to assume she was a zombie expert and ask her those questions. Yet, she appeared the best source of information. Wyatt brought himself to look at her.