Zombie Town

Chapter 12- My Ute Now

Apologies for the late update : ) expect some wild stuff to be going down real soon...

Songs: Lights on the Hills -Slim Dusty
Gotta Keep Moving -Slim Dusty
Space Bound -Eminem
(Recommended listening)

We don't have time to say goodbye to dad, no time to bury him or pay our respects. There isn't even any time to accept the fact he's dead.
We just get in our cars and drive as far away as possible from the damned  bridge and it's zombie inhabitants.

I don't feel any sense of joy driving this time, instead I can't help but think that it should be dad driving, not me. He loved this car, not because it wasn't expensive or fancy, but for all the memories made in it. The road trips to Queensland, school camps, day trips, spontaneous adventures or just drives around town. We'd all enjoy the ride together, watching for views out the window, ranging from the empty outback, to lonely country roads and windy mountain tracks. It'd just be us singing along to our music, anything from the Slim Dusty country classics, to the wrap god Eminem.

When I change gears, my hand glides over the smooth top of the gearstick. The numbers on the top extremely faded from all the times dad shifted gears. I put my hand on the gear stick, just resting there, like dad used to.
Then I reach for the radio and turn Slim Dusty's CD on, the song lights on the hills comes on.

Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh-yeah
It's a long straight road and the engine is deep
I can't help thinkin' of a good night's sleep
And the long long roads of my li-ife were a callin' me
...
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me...

I don't realise how hard I'm gripping the wheel until my tears fall onto my white knuckles. I wipe my eyes with my free hand, clearing my blurred vision. The last thing we need right now is an accident.
From the backseat I hear Felicity talking to Brina,
"Is your daddy gone too?" She asks,
"Yeah, mines gone too..." Sabrina whispers,
"I guess that makes us family now?" Felicity asks,
"I guess it does." Confirms Sabrina, confirming the smaller child next to her.
What are we going to do now, we are down another adult and gained another small child that needs our protection. If we turned her out on the streets it looks like Sabrina would never forgive us, besides, if we did let her go, I couldn't do that to a small child, a child who is just like my sister.

I keep waiting for the walkie talkie to buzz, uncle Will or Darren calling in to confirm directions or check in on us, but it never does.
The CD starts at the start of it's track for the second time, I change he album to one of dad's favourites. Neon City.
The first song that comes on is gotta keep moving, and as it plays I can see dad sitting in the passenger seat, singing along in a gruff voice with Slim.
Gotta keep movin' an' I'm feelin' good,
Got that diesel roarin' underneath the hood,
Hey the road is open an' I'm rollin' free, you see,
That I feel so good as long as I'm movin'
Yes I feel so good as long as I'm movin'.

I smile to dad, then sing along with him. The lyrics are stuck in my head, I don't know how many of hundreds of times I must have heard this song.

Been rollin' down this road, seven days or so,
There's a thousand miles behind me, a couple more to go,
Somewhere up ahead there's a woman all my own,
She'll see that plume of diesel smoke and I'm headin' home there.

Dad wasn't a Truckie, but he did work away from home. He'd drive all around Australia in his car for his work. I'd wake up Monday morning to get ready for school and my lunch would already be made, and dad would already be on the road. I'd see him when he came home on Friday, fatigued from all the driving that he'd done. He always used to say,
"Do you know how many kilometres I've driven this week? I've driven more kilometres in the past five days than your mother has in a month!" Then he'd tell me about the different things he saw during the week. Even though he was always tired when he came home, and complained about how far he'd driven, he loved every minute of his job. Nothing could keep him off the road, except us...
The walkie talkie finally crackles loudly as we pass the small town Serpentine,
"Pull over at the road house." Comes the instructions,
In front of us uncle Will and Darren are already pulling into the abandoned parking lot on front of the roadhouse, my tongue is itching to taste the greasy chips and potato cakes they used to sell here.

"We're about 100 minutes away from Koondrook, we'll be pushing to make it there before night." Darren tells us,
"So what do we do?" I ask,
"We just need to burn a bit of petrol and get the before it gets dark, we don't wanna be driving around here with our headlights on. Anyone who is around will see us, and we'll be too noisy to go by undetected by any zombies. We won't be able to defend ourselves in the dark, so we just gotta get there as fast as possible." Uncle Will explains,
"Yeah okay, but I'm not exactly the most confident driver, especially with the bush to drive through and the kangaroos...." I trail off,
"I think that Darren and yourself should share a car, share the driving for a bit, I'll take the girls in mine?" Suggests uncle Will,
"Yeah that's sounds like a good idea, I'll gladly let Darren drive for a bit if it means I can try to get a half hour or so of sleep."
I jump back in the ute to tell Brina and Felicity about the car changes, "You two are gonna be driving the rest of the way with uncle Will in his car, okay?"
"I don't wanna leave dad's car!" Pouts Sabrina,
"Well you're gonna have to, right now we need to make it to Koondrook before dark, which means we have to push it for a bit, it'll just be safer with uncle Will."
Felicity makes a pouty face aswell, "If Sabrina's not going, them I'm not either."
I take a deep breath, "If you don't go with uncle Will, you're eating the shitty spaghetti for the rest of the week."
"Geez fine, no need to make such harsh threats..." Sabrina grabs Felicity hand and follow me as I lead them to uncle Will.
"Be good." I instruct,
Sabrina embraces me in a warm hug, "Drive safe..." she whispers,

When we get back on the road I let Darren take the first shift driving,
As soon as we drive off I can feel the change in speed, I definitely don't have the balls to drive this fast yet, especially on a road as shitty as this one.
"Mind if I change the music?" He asks,
I don't really want him to change it, listening to slim makes me feel closer to my dad.
"Sure." I reply,
"Whaddya got?" He asks, "Anything other than this crappy country stuff?"
I ignore his last comment and dig through the mound of CD's, "We've got some imagine dragons, guardians of the galaxy, Eminem..."
He cuts me off at Eminem, telling me to pop his first album in the CD player.
"Sure..." I mumble,
The CD plays softly in the background, the song Space Bound by Eminem plays, one of my favourites.
I slowly start to nod off the the even rhythm of Eminem rapping when the car suddenly jolts to a stop.
"What the f-" I grab onto the handle in the roof as I lurch forwards.
"Sorry 'bout that, there was a roo on the road." He explains, just as shaken up as I am,
"I knew driving at these speeds wouldn't be safe..." I mutter,
"Yeah I know, but it's better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere for the night."
Is it really?
"Yeah probably." I take my hand off the handle, resting them in my lap as I take another deep breath.
We start driving again, but another kangaroo scare stops us in our tracks.
Darren picks up the walkie talkie, "Dad, you there?"
"Yeah we're here, everything good back there?" Uncle Will asks,
"We need to drop the speed for a bit, we've almost hit two kangaroos now." Darren tells his dad,
"We can't slow down now, we're almost there." Uncle Will protests,
"I think we should stop at Kerang for the night, sleep in the cars until morning, it's going to get darker quickly now, I don't wanna be stuck in the bush driving this fast with even more risk of kangas." Darren objects, "we can't risk an accident now." 

We hear a sigh on the walkie, "We'll park at Kerang, in one of those old sheds for a night."
"Copy that." Darren puts down the walkie and drives off, thankfully a lot slower than last time.
He dims the headlights down as the bush starts to thin down, not wanting to draw any more attention than necessary.
But with the headlights dim, we have to drive even more slower, the wildlife in the trees staring at us as we drive past.
After twenty or so minutes the car finally slows to a stop, uncle Will's car is stopped on the middle of the road. His arm pokes out from the window, pointing to the side of the road on the right.
We all drive down there, just past the 'Welcome to Kerang' sign, which is reads 'Wome Kang'. The paint has all faded away, leaving a gray background, with peeling letters and bent metal. We drive into a small old shed, that used to be a small train cargo stop.
The walkie talkie crackles up again, "We rest here until dawn, then at first light, we're outta here."
I climb out of the front seat, knowing I won't be able to sleep in a car seat. I climb onto the back floor, dragging one of Sabrina's blankets over the top of me.
I close my eyes, I wait for sleep to take over my body, but it never comes.
Instead, I see dad laying on the floor next to me, bleeding out all over Sabrina's blanket.
I open my eyes wide open, then sit up slowly. I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight.