Not only do we have to get out of the diner and to Melbourne Central, but then we have to find Ben's parents, and get from Melbourne to Cairns, with zombies crawling all over the place.

A huge task lay ahead of us, but we had very few options.

"Wyatt's right," I decided. "We can either stay here at the diner and wait for what happened to the news reporter to happen to us, or we can take our chances on the outside. If... No, when we make it Cairns, we'll be safe."

"There's only one problem." Wyatt uttered, scratching his head.

"Just one?" Ben asked sarcastically.

"What is it?" I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Ben's car is too small for all of us to fit, and Jo and Eva, you walked here today, right?"

We both nodded.

"Well, that only leaves my car. And it's parked two blocks away. We'll have to run for it."

I slid the door open a little to see at least three zombies walking passed the diner windows.

Jo groaned. "How are we going to get to it? We can't just walk out the front door!"

I reached for my satchel.

"I have an idea."

Chapter Nine.

At first, Wyatt was the only one open to my idea, but once Ben and Jo realised we had no other choice, they soon came around.

Within half an hour, I had already transformed Jo and Ben into half-decent zombies.

Using my Bruise Wheel a small tub containing a four-colour wheel of concealer (red, grey, purple and brown) as well as some tomato sauce from the diner as blood, they looked undead enough to be able to blend in to the growing parade of zombies outside.

This just might work, I thought as I put the finishing touches on my own zombie makeup.

Wyatt walked into the office and slid the door closed behind him, leaving us alone again for the first time since this morning, which already seemed like so long ago after everything we had been through.

"Hey," he said before walking towards me to take a seat on the desk. "I'm ready to be undead." He joked as he closed his eyes, waiting for me to start turning him into one of the infected.

My heart started racing as I dipped my makeup brush into the grey concealer and started dotting it all over his face.

I had never been this close to him before, so close that I could almost hear his heartbeat, and I swore it was beating even faster than mine.

"Do you think we'll make it out of here?" I said quietly, blending the concealer over his eyelids.

"Of course we will. I know our plan is a bit sketchy, but it's all we've got. And after seeing you kick that zombie's ass before, I know you'll be fine."

"I hope so." I cringed at the thought of that creature, the sickening crunch of the knife going into its skull.

"I know so. I mean, I knew you were strong, but jeez. You stabbed that thing right in the face, Eva. It was amazing. You're amazing."

The butterflies fluttered about in my stomach, but I ignored his compliment. After what I heard last night, I found it hard to trust his kind words now.

"I lied last night, Eva," he said, not opening his eyes even though I had finished applying makeup to them. "Tom's a sleaze. I couldn't to tell him the truth. Last year, when our old drummer, Will, told us about a girl he liked, Tom purposely started flirting with her and they hooked up two weeks later. Will was crushed. He left the band because of it." He paused, waiting for me to reply.

"Wyatt, it's okay. We've got more serious things to worry about right now. Forget it." I said, wondering if he was telling the truth.

"No, I won't," he said as he opened his eyes. "If I don't tell you this now, I might not ever get the chance."

He held my hands in his and looked into my eyes, demanding my attention.

"Tom's like a kid who isn't interested in a toy until another kid picks it up and starts playing with it. Not that I think you're a toy... Ugh. This isn't going well." He sighed, pausing before continuing his speech.

"If I told him the truth... If I told him what I really think about you, he'd be all over you. You heard the way he spoke about women last night; he's a pig. No way was I going to let him near you."

I realised I had stopped breathing. I let out a sigh and took in a long, deep breath as I matched his gaze. He searched my eyes, as though trying to read my thoughts.

"So, what is the truth?" I managed to ask, my heart pounding in my chest.

"The truth is..." He trailed off, looking down at our intertwined hands as he spoke.

"The truth is, I think you're the most beautiful, smart, amazing girl I've ever met and I think about you all the time. I love that you're independent. I love that you are strong and that you don't need a guy to save you all the time. I love... everything about you."

He looked up at me then, the corner of his mouth turning up into a half-smile as he continued.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about last night, Eva. That's what I've been trying to tell you for months, but I was... I didn't want to ruin our friendship if..." He paused again, closing his eyes as he cringed. "If you didn't feel the same way. But I couldn't take it anymore, especially when I saw that Cosmo Guy hitting on you last night..." He rolled his eyes. "I knew I had to take a chance and tell you. So, here I am."

He waited anxiously, trying to gauge my reaction.

I had stopped breathing again. The butterflies in my stomach had sparked into a frenzy, sending flutters of excitement dancing through my veins.

What could I possibly say to such a sweet revelation? Words eluded me, so I decided to do something I had wanted to do ever since I laid eyes on him.

I smiled at the thought of what I was about to do, and Wyatt's shoulders relaxed once he saw happiness spread across my face.

Slowly, I leaned in towards him, and he responded by doing the same. With our lips finally about to touch, I felt the butterflies going wilder than ever before.

This is it, I thought.

This is my moment.

A sudden loud crash echoed throughout the diner, interrupting our perfect moment and bringing us tumbling back down to reality.

Quickly, Wyatt stood up, slamming the door sideways as he ran out into the diner, with me right behind him to see what had happened.

Ben was standing with his hands covering his ears from the noise, and was surrounded by pieces of broken plates all around him on the floor.

"What did you do?" Wyatt asked Ben, clearly frustrated.

"Sorry, I... I knocked the plates over. It was an accident." He apologised.

"Uh. Guys?" Jo called from the other side of the counter, looking out the window.

We all turned to face the windows of the diner to see at least a dozen zombies stumbling up to the glass.

"I think they know we're here now!" She whimpered as she backed up, side-stepping her way around the counter to grab hold of my arm.

"Time to leave!" Said Wyatt as he ran back into the office to grab our weapons.

"How are we going to get passed them now?" I asked, running in behind him to grab my satchel.

"We won't, not with so many of them out there waiting for us. We'll have to hideout in the basement." Answered Ben as Wyatt passed him his makeshift spear.

My stomach turned as we quickly ran out of the diner and into the hallway, headed for the basement.

There's no way we'll survive this now.

I followed the others as Wyatt opened the door into the stairwell and started running down the stairs.

"Wait!" I whispered, and they all stopped on the stairs to look back at me. "We'll die down there. We have to get to the car."

Wyatt stepped back up the stairs and onto the landing to face me.

"They're waiting for us out there. We don't have any other choice." He said softly, taking hold of my hand.

"Yes we do." I replied, pulling him towards the trolleys.

I knew we only had two choices: Leave.

Or die.

Chapter Ten.

Wyatt slowly creaked the door of the stairwell open, peering carefully into the diner. I could see through the crack that dozens of zombies crowded around the diner, growling as they pressed up against the windows.

I held my breath as Wyatt quickly snuck through the door and behind the counter, running low and fast so the creatures wouldn't see him.

I moved forward and watched as he stayed low, making his way over to the other side of the diner, pressing his back up against the counter to stay out of sight.

For a moment, I thought about praying for him, for us, to make it out of here unscathed.

I stopped believing in God the moment I found out my parents had been killed. When the Police woman with those melancholy eyes sat me down and told me the driver of the taxi they were in fell asleep at the wheel and veered directly into the path of a semi-trailer. In an instant, they were gone, and my faith died along with them.

But, as I watched those mindless zombies sniffing and clawing at the glass, their sinister eyes searching for signs of life, and saw Wyatt coming dangerously close to them, I wished more than ever that some omnipotent being was watching over us, keeping us alive.

Slowly, Wyatt reached his hand up towards the cash register, crinkling his nose as he pushed the eject button, causing the cash draw to 'ding' as it popped open.

Peering around the corner of the counter, he breathed a sigh of relief to see the zombies hadn't heard it over their moaning, and he reached into the cash drawer, picking up a coin.

He hurriedly crawled back towards the other end of the counter, close to the hallway where Ben, Jo and myself were watching him, waiting.

He rose up over the counter and slid the coin into one of the jukeboxes.

Carefully, he started flipping through the song choices.

"Wyatt!" Jo whispered impatiently. "Just pick one! It doesn't matter!"

"It does matter!" He whispered back, searching the song list. "We're about to do something completely insane and extremely dangerous we need a power song!"

Jo sighed, exasperated, but I couldn't help but smile to myself.

Finally, his eyes landed on the perfect song.

"Oh yeah," he grinned. "That's the one."

Wyatt pushed the button and rolled back into the hallway, just as Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets started blaring throughout the diner.

"That should distract 'em long enough." He said as he locked the door.

This was it.

Our only chance to make it out of here alive.

Wyatt and Ben held the trolleys still while Jo and I climbed in, already loaded with our bags and the weapons we gathered from around the diner.

"Ready?" Asked Ben as he and Wyatt positioned the trolleys up against the double doors in the stairwell. Hearing a loud smash from back inside the diner, I knew the zombies had made their way inside. It was now or never.

"Let's do this." I answered, holding my spear in position.

They pushed the trolleys forward, slamming us through the doors and out onto the street.

Even though the majority of zombies had been lured towards the front of the building by the music blaring through the outside speakers, and most were now making their way into the diner, at least a dozen still stood between us and Wyatt's car parked two blocks away.