After almost forgetting entirely, I suddenly remember the voices and tell Elijah about them.
"It was the weirdest thing, it was like I was in the room with them, listening from someone else's body. That's crazy though right?" I ask as I sit up straight in my seat, looking from Elijah to the scenery around us.
"It is pretty crazy, but I think considering everything else that is going on, it's not that crazy at all. There has to be something bigger going on and for some reason you're able to tap into it. How else would you be getting all these visions?" Elijah keeps looking over at me, but continues to focus on the road.
"I suppose you're right, it just seemed too random to not be related. Like they said they were keeping people somewhere. That means there are people who don't know what has happened here." I say trying to mull everything over in my head.
"Wait! If they are holding people. Maybe these are the people that took my mum? Or maybe they are the reason all those people went missing?!" Elijah says getting louder as his thoughts race, excitement and joy clearly evident.
"I mean that certainly seems like a possibility and I don't want to burst this bubble you have created, but I think we need to be thinking rationally about this. What are the chances that these people could be linked to your mum? There's no way my brain is just linked to where they are like a radio frequency......"
I trail off before looking over at Elijah questioningly, Nadia kicks up a fuss and I climb up on my seat to reach around and pick her up. Elijah smacks my butt while it's in reach and let's out a giggle. I smirk at him once I'm buckled back into my seat.
"Cheeky sod. Now where was I? Oh yeah. Do you think that could be a thing?" I ask, wondering if I could make my head work like a two way radio.
"Make what a thing?" Eli replies, staring at the road and the surroundings, I deadpan at his words.
"It's like talking to a goldfish." I say seriously and Elijah flashes me a look showing he isn't amused by the comment either.
"Jeez that was rough." He grumbles under his breath but I hear him quite clearly.
"Sorry, you're right. I'm just trying to chase a wave length here. Do you think I could treat my brain like a radio and tune into those guys by choice? Maybe even work out where they are. Even if they don't have your mum, it could be shelter from all this, no more Manic." I say almost feeling the sense of relief already at not having to deal those monsters.
"I mean the only way to know for sure is to try I guess, only you can do that and say we do find them and find what I'm assuming is an underground bunker and my mum isn't there. Does that mean we are just giving up looking for her?" I can hear the hurt clear in his voice and as I absentmindedly rock Nadia back to sleep I look over at him.
"What makes you think we'd give up? I never said that at all." He continues to stare straight at the road, clearly in a mood and changing the whole atmosphere inside the car.
"You literally just said if my mum isn't in there, we would have shelter, sounds like giving up to me." He glances at me and I can tell he's annoyed.
"That doesn't mean we are giving up Eli, it just means that if I can find people this way, we will have a safe place to do it, we have Nadia now, we can't just roam around Australia guessing where they might be. At least we could leave Nadia with people and then go look for your mum if need be, then the Manic won't have a dinner bell for us. I should have worded myself better, I'm sorry."
Elijah nods seeming content with that response, a green sign comes into view letting us know we are on Balonne Highway and that a small town called Bollon is not too far ahead.
"We should pull into that town, get some fuel and baby supplies for Nadia. Maybe see if there's people around here." I say to Elijah and there's a pause between us and I start to think he just doesn't want to talk at the moment.
"That's a good idea, Nadia really does need some supplies and we are getting low on fuel. Let's just hope they have some sort of place to get things. We should probably make a plan on where we are going, instead of just aimlessly driving." He keeps staring ahead not once looking at me and I sigh heavily inside myself. Trying my best not to reflect my mood, I hope this lull doesn't last long between us.
"Yeah we should look for a map of Australia and mark every where we have been and places of interest. I don't recognise this highway or this town. Surely we are still in Queensland, I'm just not sure where." He nods his head in response.
I got lucky while growing up and had gone on many camping trips with my parents all over Australia, so I'm pretty well versed on highways and areas in the country, but this just seems so out in the middle of no where that I've either never been here or just skimmed over it.
Once we are in the town it's clear to see why I have never heard of the place, there was virtually nothing here, I guess if you desire to live isolated and away from everyone this is the town to do it in.
Elijah pulls into the very little petrol station, it doesn't even look like the usual ones we are used to, just a normal building with one fuel pump out front.
"Do you want to stay here with Nadia and I'll break in and have a look at the system here. Considering I'm the one with petrol experience." I say opening my door open and offering Nadia to him.
"Sure." He says flatly, taking her carefully. I huff and climb out the car, kinda getting tired of the way he's behaving. I try to see reason and understand that we are both under a lot of stress. I didn't want to take away the excitement that we could possibly find his mother.
At least for now we know she is possibly safe and away from all this. My family didn't even get a chance to try and survive this. I start to get more mad as I think about it, that whoever decided to bomb everyone. Why didn't they just let people have a chance at survival? Is it because the supplies would run out after? The more people alive could have meant safety for all of us, but I guess we will just never know.
I shut myself down inside my own head and focus on the task at hand, I pull my bat out of the boot and approach the station door, I knock a couple times on the off chance someone is in there or that a Manic is in there.
I kind of have doubts that the Manic would be this far out, but I guess it's better to be safe then sorry. After not hearing anything at all, I try the handle and it is locked as I had expected. I try opening the roller shutter as well with still no luck. I sus out the window by the normal door and send my bat through it, glass shattering and going everywhere, I make sure to knock it all out before climbing into the window.
I hit the switch and the lights flicker on, they must run a different power grid for there lights to work. I power up the old computer, that looks to run their tills and the pump, I look around for a manual activation for the pump with no such luck.
"Hey Eli!" I call over to him, as he's working out of the backseat, probably changing Nadia with her last nappy, I really hope there's some supplies here, I don't really want to have to substitute a diaper. He turns and looks over at me once he's done what he's doing.
"Can you pick the pump up and put it in the car." He just nods and goes about doing it, I go back inside and hear the till making the annoying action pump sound. I find the pump activation button and press it and I can see on the screen that the car is filling up. I let out a sigh of relief, knowing we aren't going to be stuck here.
I go to walk away from the screen after watching the numbers continue to rise, because something has caught my attention. They have stopped moving, I frown, surely it's not full already, I know for a fact that my car takes more then that.
I go over to the window to see what Eli is doing and it takes a moment for my brain to register what I'm seeing. A middle aged man has Elijah pinned on the ground and is punching him in the face. Elijah does his best to fight back, getting an elbow to hit the guy in the nose.
I rush for the door in a panic, going to help him. Something cold and large hits my back hard though, pressing into my spine and forcing me against the door, I try and turn around.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The voice of an older women greets my ears, I turn my head and see she has a rather large gun pressed into my back. I raise my hands above my head, surrending immediately.
"Open the door slowly." I do as she says and she presses me with the gun forward. I walk outside towards the pump where Elijah has the guy now pinned and wailing into him hard, blood and dirt coating his face and clothes.
The lady forces the gun into my shoulder, indicating for me to get on to my knees, I do without hesitation and the jolting action sends shooting pain through my legs as rocks dig into my knees.
"I suggest you get off of him immediately!" The lady shouts, Elijah hesitates the blow he's about to land and looks up at the voice, his eyes widening as he takes in the sight of me. Fear settling into him, he stands up away from the guy and raises his hands.
The guy gets up and grabs Elijahs arms forcing them behind his back and pulling zip ties from his back pocket and binding his hands together.
"We didn't mean any harm. We were just desperate for fuel. We are willing to trade for it." I stammar out, the lady scoffs.
"Meant no harm? You smashed my window, stole my fuel and then beat my husband. Doesn't seem harmless to me."
"Maybe he shouldn't have fucking jumped me then, of course I was going to defend myself." Elijah says seething, the anger clear in his voice.
"Well maybe I should hurt something of yours than." I hear the gun cock and my heart races as she readjusts it.
"I love you Elijah, so much, I'm so sorry." I cry needing him to hear it. The gun fires and I slump forward, my whole body going into shock. The man behind Elijah hits him over the head, knocking him out and catches him before he hits the ground.
"Get him inside." The women says to the man and he drags Elijah inside the building. "Get up you silly girl, you're fine."
My breathing is shallow and panicked, but she's right, she hadn't shot me at all, she had fired at the ground to the right of her, avoiding me all together, I didn't even get any sharpnel.
I push myself up and stand with difficulty, I stumble towards the car.
"Hey! Where the fuck do you think you're going?" She screams at me.
"I'm not getting a weapon if that's what you think." I get to the back door and pull it open, so glad Elijah had closed it.
"Do you want me to shoot you? Stupid girl, get inside now!" She says raising the gun back up at me, I ignore her and pick Nadia up, closing the door behind me. Nadia starts to cry softly in my arms, clearly not happy about being disturbed.
"Then you'd be a heartless bitch." I said to her, she looks at me dumbfounded, immediately lowering the gun as she stares at Nadia. I walk for the door, going inside as she had instructed. I search for Elijah and start to get stressed when I can't see him or the man. The lady enters the building and heads for a door by the back of the shop.
I follow her and once we are through the door I realise the shop is attached to what must be their house. She enters the lounge room and I see Elijah being tied to a kitchen chair.
"Please that isn't necessary." I say growing more distressed.
"I think it is." The man looks up to glare at me, but he kinda gets a panicked look on his face when he to sees Nadia, he looks to his wife and she just shakes her head. He leaves Elijah half tied to the chair, I immediately go over to him and check his head to see how bad his injuries are.
A black eye and a split lip, his right cheek seeming to have gravel imbedded in the skin and I grimace at the sight. There's no mark on the back of his head though from where he got knocked out surpriseingly.
"Can I please clean him up!?" I call to them as they had disappeared into another room. The lady returning with a bowl and cloth, placing it in front of Eli.
"Give me the baby." She says simply, I immediately step back away from her. "You can tend to him and I'll hold her, I'm not going to hurt her I'm not a monster." I almost want to refuse her again, but something about her tone makes me believe her and I carefully hand Nadia over.
Much to my surprise she sits on the couch behind Elijah, cooing and talking to the little infant, she nods her head at me indicating she's not going to leave with her.
I grab the cloth inside the bowl and wring it out, I carefully clean as much dirt and blood off of Eli and removing the pepples from his face.
"So what made you think it was okay to steal our fuel?" The women finally speaks up.
"We were getting desperate for it, I knocked to see if anyone was here but no one answered. There's not exactly much in this town so there was no need to stay for long to wait and find out if someone was here." I keep dabbing at the blood that doesn't seem to want to stop pooling from his wounds.
"So you think just because it's a small town it's acceptable to steal? I'm sorry but you're gonna have to remain here until the local police officer arrives and he can deal with you." She says while rocking Nadia and tapping her back softly.
"Oh, you don't know then." I knew they were cut off from everything but surely thought they would have heard of some news.
"What do you mean I don't know?" She says annoyed at the fact that I'm not getting straight to the point.
"There's been another outbreak, people are no longer people, from the knowledge I have every major city has been bombed in an attempt to control it. There's practically no one left. We fled from Brisbane last night." The look of complete shock and horror on her face proves to me that she seriously didn't know what was going on at all.
"You're taking the piss." I turn my head to see the man standing in the door way behind me. "Just trying to get out of trouble now aren't you, the younger the generation the more bullshit they lie about."
"I'm not lying! Do you think I got this batted and bruised just going on a camping trip? That baby isn't even ours, her mother ate her father and then I had to kill her. My whole family were bombed, his mother is missing, I wouldn't joke about this shit." I yell getting so upset that with everything we had just been through and this man is trying to invalidate it.
I understand it's a lot to believe but I'm too worked up to calm down now.
They both remain silent, the tension so thick, I could cut it with a knife. "So you're saying everyone is gone?" The man says somberly. I just nod my head the two look at each other, the women gets up and hands me Nadia before her and the man both leave towards the kitchen.
I go over to Elijah and pull my butterfly knife from my shoe, I start cutting the cable ties, freeing Elijah's hands and arms, the man never got around to his legs. I shove the knife back in my shoe as best as I can and start gently slapping Eli's cheek to try and get him to wake up. Adjusting Nadia on my hip as best as I can, still not used to holding a baby yet.
"Come Eli, wake up. I need you." He groans and I have to cover his mouth to get him to stop making so much noise.
"What are you doing?" I turn around quickly, supporting Nadia's head and standing between Elijah's legs to keep him pressed up against the chair instead of slumping forward.
"I'm trying to make sure he's okay. You belted him pretty hard." I glare at the man standing before me.
"My name's Roy. What's yours?" His question throws me off guard, it's so odd being asked a normal question.
"I'm Bailey, this is Nadia and he's Elijah." I watch him cautiously, eyeing him up and the kitchen behind him.
"My wife is Julia." I nod as we fall into an awkward silence, Julia definitely seems to be the pants in the relationship as Roy appears to wait for her instructions.
A strange sensation fills my head and I start to experience a sense of tunnel vision, the feeling becoming more familiar as I realise I'm about to have another vision.
I turn suddenly and kneel down between Elijah's thighs, laying Nadia across them and trying to hug her against us both so she'll be stable as I lose all sense of control. I distantly feel Elijahs arms wrapping around us both as he comes to.
I lock eyes with him in my last attempt to remain in control, but my surroundings darken and change, bringing on such a feeling of motion sickness and then suddenly I'm floating into nothingness.