Dead-Bound

Chapter 1 - The Three Musketeer's

5th July 2017 - 8:12 am

On a bite-bittering winter's morning a television channel suddenly podcasts into a seemingly normal living room. The TV flashed vivid colors across its screen, showing the intro to viewers watching. The beginning of the programme reveals the show's name; 'News4' as the quartz flash slowly faded out. There was a glimpse of Sydney as the background, the intro image mixes with the presenters coming in. A middle-aged man with neat, formal-wear attire and a youthful woman, looking to be late 20s at best in an office-type desk ahead of us. The large camera facing towards them, hidden out of sight from us viewers, the camera smoothly rolled towards the both of them.

"⎯⎯!BREAKING NEWS!⎯⎯" Text rolled around the bottom section of the television. Not long after, the man began to speak.

"Good morning New South Wales, I'm James Kennedy--" The gentlemen proceeded with.

"--And I'm Alice Shelby bringing you to; News Channel Four." The soft, smiling madam followed after the deep voiced bloke.

"On the daily topic, a devastating event has been unfolding in Southern Australia, five thousand people have been reported dead in one day. I'm not joking folks, five thousand lives lost in a single d-day." After completing that sentence her voice became shattered while her voice stuttered at the end.

The male reporter followed up with the quote, "Unfortunately, this was no act of a distasteful massacre. A month before the event, the death rate of Australia had climbed up to a staggering: eleven thousand and six hundred from two thousand five hundred over the past month." He nonchalantly said to the film-camera.

"Numerous of those deaths are from a shooting that happened in June. The person that's suspected to be behind that massacre is Brandon Burrell. A known criminal in Sydney police department's industry--" The female reporter was cut short with her words being heard at the time.

A young lady by the name of Octavia Bourke had continuously switched the channels to suit a better environment for herself. The channels repeatedly changed with multiple shows coming on with only a split second of screen time such as; David Attenborough with his 'Blue Planet', 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!' and 'Ten Pound Poms'. In an instant a deep voiced woman shouted across the apartment, making Octavia jump at her.

"OCTAVIA! Stop watching the News! You need to get ready for school, otherwise you'll be late!" You could hear the exhaustion in the mother's voice.

The mother then caught a glimpse of Octavia's clothes. "Get changed already! It's now quarter past eight and school started in half an hour!" her mom notified her daughter to get changed.

"Alright mom.." Octavia placed the remote control onto the miniature table sitting between the moderate TV and the long couch, her back hunched over at the furniture.

She quickly speed-walked towards her room on the other side of the home. Octavia rushed to put on her loose, blue jeans with numerous sunflower patterns embroidered into her pants. She slides on her bright yellow colored jumper with a beautiful hand-made necklace

manufactured by her very own mother.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, her mom was cooking up a storm of her favorite plate of food at breakfast. The mother was enjoying herself that she started to hum, quietly. Once she was fully clothed with only being able to make it by sprinting faster than what's possible, she ran across the hallway to the shoe rack. With one foot at a time she slipped on her checkered low hanging converses. Her black, fuzzy hair waving through the air whilst hopping to the kitchen island where the furniture settled.

"Dear, please just take your time getting your shoes on. Just look at them!" she pointed at her daughter's shoes with a spatula, "Are those even tied properly?!" she questions Octavia's speed. Octavia huffed after her mothers question.