Today I Die, Tomorrow I live

Chapter Three >Daniel<

I woke up to the sound of the car starting and us moving back onto the road. Everyone was already awake; I looked to the front and noticed the Meredith was driving with Jemana in the passenger seat next to her.

“He wakes.” Meredith said looking at me in the rear view mirror.

I sat up straight and stretched.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Well it’s one o’clock.” Meredith said as she continued to drive down the highway.

 “But we only woke up twenty minutes ago.” Claire answered the rest of my question.

I nodded and looked out the window, we were surrounded by hill covered in drying grass and I could see some trees and shrubs in the distance and old houses dotted around as well.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked looking back to the front of the car.

“Well we’ll just get back into Geelong and figure things out from there.” Jemana turned to look at me but turned back when she was done talking.

“Ok. Do you know where you’re taking us Meredith?”

Meredith smirked at the road in front of the car.

“I’ve got a good idea. Don’t worry Daniel, too much.”

I rolled my eyes and went back to looking out the window, it was like walking along the road; all I could see for miles and miles was road and dead grass.

It was around two o’clock and my stomach started growling.

“Meredith, I’m hungry.” I said putting on a whinny voice.

I saw Meredith shake her head.

“What do you want me to do about it?” she asked.

I smiled.

“Get me something to eat Meredith.”

“Daniel you’ll just have to wai-”

The smile faded from my face as I looked towards the front to see why Meredith had stopped talking; in the distance I could see Warn Ponds. Cars were broken down in the middle of the road, some were even flipped onto their side.

Meredith stopped the car in the middle of the road and we all got out.

“What happened here?”  Claire looked around. The traffic lights were knocked over and Bunnings and all the other shops in that area looked like they had been set on fire.

“The same thing that happened at camp.” I looked over a Hugo who had come to stand next to Claire.

“No! That was there, in the middle of nowhere.” Emily argued, “That can’t happen here!”

“Emily it has, there nothing we can do.” Claire yelled at her.

I sighed and shook my head.

“Meredith?” She was looking off into the distance, “Meredith?”

“I have to go.” She spoke quietly.

“What?” I moved closer to her and she turned around to face me.

“My family could probably be dead, but I have see for myself.” She spoke as she headed towards one of the cars that weren’t turned over.

“We’ll all go.”

Meredith shook her head.

“No, you’ll want to see if you’re families alive and everyone else will too.” She opened the door to the car that was in front of us, “and it will take too long to go to everyone’s house and find a place to stay for the night if the ‘zombies’ come out.”

“You really think zombies did this?”

“Zombies, mutants. Whatever they were their here now.” She looked at me frustrated, “what happened at the camp wasn’t just a fun little activity, people were killed. We were lucky to get out.”

“Ok.” I agreed, “Be careful.”

She got in and smiled as she found the keys still in the ignition then started the car.

“Meet you back here?”

“Sure.”

I stood back and watched as she drove off, heading towards her home.                          

“What do you think she’ll find?” Emily was next to me.

“I don’t know.” I turned away and headed back towards our car, “come one we’ll go see if we can find anyone still alive.”

“Was anyone in there?” I asked as Hugo came out of his house.

Hugo shook his head and got in the car next to Claire.

“No the house was completely empty.”

I sighed.

Hugo’s house was the last one we had been to and it was the same story everywhere, the house was empty.

I nodded.

“Ok we can’t stay here.”