“Eva,” I heard Elliot’s voice say. “EVA!”
My eyes snapped open. It was dark in my room, with only the moonlight trickling in.
I could see him standing over me as I lay in bed.
“Elliot! What the hell? What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting up quickly.
He started to laugh menacingly, like a villain in a superhero movie.
I leaned over to the bedside table, flicking on the lamp.
My heart leapt into my throat when I saw him.
Elliot was wearing his camouflage gear again, mud spattered all over his face. He held a machine gun by his side. But that wasn’t what terrified me.
He was completely covered in blood. His bald head was deep red, his clothes and hands were soaked in fresh, dripping blood.
Thunder roared from above, shaking the house violently.
In one swift movement, Elliot’s face was inches away from my own, his evil smile sending chills down my spine.
“Get away from me!” I yelled. I tried to scramble out of the bed, but I was frozen stiff. “Wyatt!” I screamed.
Elliot laughed. “No-one’s coming to save you, Eva.”
“What did you do to them?” I demanded, tears filling my eyes.
He pushed his face closer to mine, his eyes wide and deadly.
“They’re all dead!” He yelled, throwing his head back in a fit of laughter.
I woke in a fright and sprang up in bed, sweat streaming down my face. I looked around my room, but I was alone. It was just a dream.
“What a nightmare.” I sighed as I fell back onto the pillow.
My heart was still pounding when Jo knocked on my door a few minutes later.
“Eva? Wake up, lovely! Breakfast is nearly ready.” She called through the door.
“Be right there, Jo.” I called back as I slowly climbed out of bed.
I didn’t know how long I had slept for, but – apart from the nightmare – it was the most restful sleep I’d had in days.
I stumbled out into the kitchen to see Elliot wearing only boxer shorts and an apron, cooking bacon and eggs. Jo was standing next to him, pouring orange juice into a glass.
“Juice, Eva?” She asked, cheerfully.
“Yeah, thanks.” I replied.
I sighed in relief when I saw Wyatt sitting at the dining table, chewing on a piece of toast.
“Hey, you ok?” I asked as I took a seat next to him.
“I’ll be alright. Sorry I disappeared like that.” He apologised, putting his hand on my leg.
“Don’t apologise, I get it.” I nodded.
He leaned over, hugging me tight.
“Oh, I see what’s going on here.” Elliot said.
Wyatt and I looked over to see him waving his spatula back and forth at us.
“You two are a thing, aren’t you?” He grinned.
Neither of us said anything, but I could feel my cheeks warming into a blush.
“Yep! They totally are! And it’s about freaking time, too. I couldn’t stand watching another second of their ‘will they, won’t they’ soap opera.” Jo said, rolling her eyes and flashing me a cheeky smile.
“What about you, blondey? You and short-stuff a thing, too?” Elliot asked, elbowing Jo in the side.
“Me and Ben?” Jo squealed, pretending she had no idea what he was talking about. “No way. I’m free as a bird!”
Just then, Ben emerged from the hallway, looking annoyed. He took one look at Elliot and grimaced.
“Jeez, man. Don’t you ever wear clothes?” he muttered as he plopped himself onto the chair across from me at the table.
“Nope!” Elliot replied proudly, lifting his arms in the air. “I’m free as a bird, too!”
Jo high-fived Elliot and they started doing a little dance around the kitchen.
Ben glared at them and started gagging comically.
I heard barking from outside and scratching on the door soon after. I got up and walked over to the door to let Dixon in. He jumped up on me, tail wagging furiously.
“Dixon, how’d you get outside?” I asked as I knelt down to pat him.
“I put him out there last night.” Said Elliot, the humour he had on his face seconds ago was gone.
“Why?” Asked Ben.
Elliot didn’t say anything, he just shrugged his shoulders and scooped the bacon and eggs onto plates.
Jo handed me a glass of orange juice before sitting down next to Ben.
Elliot walked over, carrying four plates on his arms and placing one in front of each of us.
“Thanks so much for breakfast, Elliot. It looks amazing!” Smiled Jo.
“Mmmhm.” He replied, reaching over the breakfast bar to get his own plate before sitting down at the head of the table, between me and Ben.
“Now that we’re all settled in,” he began, suddenly serious. “There are a few things we need to discuss before we eat.”
“What things?” Asked Ben.
“Well, for starters, just because I have solar panels doesn’t mean you can sit around playing Xbox and watching DVDs all day.” He said, looking straight at Ben.
Ben opened his mouth to retort but Elliot held up his hand and kept talking.
“The power needs to be conserved. As does the water and the food. And if you’re going to live here you need to work for it. I expect you all to do your share of cooking, cleaning, standing watch when it’s needed and tending to the vegetable garden on the roof. Paradise isn’t free, my friends.”
He paused and made eye contact with each of us before continuing his speech.
“As for security, you will be safe here. I have prepared for everything. I have more than enough weapons for all of us, from samurai swords to machine guns. If we ever need any more supplies, I have a jeep around back that we can use to drive to town, but that won’t be for a while yet.”
The image of him holding a machine gun in my nightmare flashed into my memory. I pushed it out of my mind and kept listening to what he had to say.
“This land is far from the nearest town, surrounded by rainforest and the perimeter is protected by a tall fence that zombies can’t get through. However, if one does get through, I have this…”
He pulled something out of his pocket and placed on the table in front of us. It looked like a little remote control or a beeper. We looked at him curiously, wondering how that could help defend us against zombies.
“’I have placed sensors in the trees on the outside of the fence and along the driveway, if anything bigger than a wallaby comes too close, this little baby here will vibrate. If that happens, we have two options. Option number one; we grab our weapons and head out to search the perimeter to kill the zombie. Option number two; we grab our weapons and stay here, waiting for them to come to us. Option number two is obviously the safer one, but trust me, option number one sounds like the most fun to me. I can’t wait to make my first kill!”
A wicked grin flashed across his face.
“Now,” he said as he picked up his knife and fork. “I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have while we enjoy our first breakfast together around this table.”
He started cutting into his eggs, signalling to the rest of us that we could do the same.
“I have a question.” Said Ben, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Of course you do.” Said Elliot, not looking up from his plate.
“These weapons you mentioned, where are they?”
“Somewhere secure. We don’t need them right now. If we’re in danger, I’ll supply you with everything you need.” Elliot said.
“I thought I’d at least get a gun.” Sulked Ben.
“Guns are for people who know how to use them.” Elliot replied. “Besides, they’re too loud, all they do is attract more zombies. If we do use them, it’s if there’s no other choice.”
“Fine.” Said Ben, thinking of another question to throw at Elliot.
“Ok, riddle me this, Rambo. You’ve got solar panels and a satellite dish, but when I turned the TV on yesterday there was nothing but static. What’s up with that?”
Elliot froze for a second, thinking about his answer. “It was all working fine, even after the rest of the country lost the connection. But… a storm hit yesterday morning – a big one. I’m surprised you didn’t get caught in it on the way up. Lightning struck the satellite dish and I lost the feed.”
“I have a question.” Said Jo, raising her hand as though she was in school.
Elliot looked up at her and smiled, “Yes?”
“Wyatt said you had a bunker, can we see it?”
Elliot shot a quick glance at Wyatt before answering her question.
“No. No-one goes in the bunker. It is strictly for emergency only. Only when there is no other option do we even consider it. Until then, it’s hidden.” He said sternly.
Jo shrunk in her chair a little, like she had been scolded.
“But don’t worry,” he added, smiling again. “There’s nothing interesting in there anyway. Just canned food and supplies.”
Jo relaxed again, content with his answer.
“So, that’s the plan then? To stay here?” Asked Ben, biting off a piece of bacon.
“Did you have something else in mind?” Asked Elliot, curiously.
“Well, no offence man, this is an awesome hide-out, but you’re talking like we’re gonna be here forever. We might be safe for a while, but let’s not kid ourselves, we can’t stay here very long.” Answered Ben. “We need to get out of Australia. I say we go down to the port, grab a luxury yacht and head for Bali, or New Zealand, or somewhere far, far away.”
“I don’t know what good that will do,” Said Elliot, furrowing his brow. “With the virus spreading like wildfire all over the world, the safest place to be is right here.”
We all stared at him in shock.
Wyatt cleared his throat. “What do you mean, Elliot? Only Australia is infected.”
Elliot dropped his knife and fork loudly onto his plate, eyes wide in disbelief.
“You don’t know, do you?” He asked.
“Know what?” Asked Ben.
“The world’s gone.” He said bluntly. “They’re all dead.”