The older man grabbed hold of the other man's wounded arm, pointing to it and shouting something.

"They're not letting them in." Ben murmured, bewildered at the scene in front of them.

"Why not? They said on the news that anyone infected needs medical assistance.

They did what they were told. They need help!" Said Jo, and I could tell by the strain on her voice that she had started panicking again.

All of a sudden, we all jumped at the sound of gunfire in the distance. One of the soldiers had opened fire on the men.

Jo screamed as we watched the men's bodies thrash violently against the force of the bullets and fall heavily to the ground.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Jo screamed, I held her tight, urging her to keep calm, but I felt just as terrified as she did.

"That was 'medical assistance'," whispered Wyatt, his jaw hanging open in shock.

"There's no cure. They just kill them."

Tears fell onto my cheeks as I stared blankly at the lifeless bodies, being dragged behind the sand bag wall by one the soldiers while the other jumped in their car and drove it out of sight.

"We gotta get out of here. We'll need to find another way out of the city." Wyatt said as he started the engine and began reversing the RV.

This whole time, I had hoped more than anything that this nightmare would end soon.

That a vaccine would be distributed and within a few months everything would be back to normal. I wanted more than anything to go back to living my life, to having my trivial little problems.

But now I knew it wasn't going to happen. I may not ever have that life back again. A twinge of guilt hit my stomach as I realised how much I took for granted just yesterday.

Safety, food, health, friends, freedom did I ever take a moment to be grateful for any of it? I'm sure I would have, had I known it would end so soon.

But now I knew for sure; everything had changed. We were on our own.

No-one would be coming to save us.

Chapter Fourteen.

We sat in silence during the drive out of the city. After seeing such inhumane violence first-hand, none of us felt inclined to fill the air with chit-chat.

As Wyatt drove through the suburbs, I could see Ben shifting anxiously in his seat.

The neighbourhood streets were just as deserted as the city, except for a few devoured bodies strewn across the side of the road every now and then.

We saw the occasional car speeding down the street, filled with survivors just like us, although most were headed in the opposite direction, fleeing.

Even though the outbreak only hit here late last night, a bond had already formed between the few of us who had survived. I exchanged knowing glances with the others in the cars as they passed us, their eyes just us worried and weary as my own.

I could tell by their blood spattered faces that the infected hit this area hard, maybe harder than it hit the city.

None of this bode well for Ben's parents. I took a deep breath and hoped that, somehow, they had managed to stay alive.

"It's just here," said Ben, pointing to a house on the left side of the street. "The white one with the rose bushes."

Wyatt pulled the RV over and for a moment we sat quietly, scanning the street for any signs of life... or death.

Ben turned to us and nodded, so we each picked up a knife and slowly exited the motorhome.

A cool breeze brushed against my face, and I almost felt peaceful as I closed my eyes to breathe it in. It was late afternoon, and soon the sun would start to set, bringing this the first day of this Australian apocalypse to an end. But I knew the horror had only just begun.

I followed Ben through the gate in the white picket fence and admired his childhood home.

A white, two-storey weatherboard, with flower boxes adorning the window sills and a beautiful garden, it was charming. I could envision Ben growing up here; playing on the long front porch, running through sprinklers in the summertime. It appeared to be untouched from the ravages of the outbreak.

I climbed up the porch steps and waited by the front window while Ben searched his pockets for his keys. Wyatt and Jo stood in front of the house, keeping watch.

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw movement from inside the house.

I stepped up to the window and cupped my hands over the glass to take a closer look inside.

My heart sank deep into my chest when I saw them.

There, in the middle of the living room, I saw a man's body. His arms laid motionless by his sides and his head facing the window, his sad, frightened eyes staring into nothingness.

An infected woman crouched over him, her blood soaked hands clawing into his stomach as she fed on his intestines.

The sound of Ben's jingling keys unlocking the screen door awoke me from my terror.

"Ben! Stop! Don't unlock the door!" I whispered as loud as I could, making it sound more like a desperate screech.

"What?" he asked, freezing in place. "Why?"

I didn't know what to say. He walked towards the window, his face wrinkled in agony as he saw my eyes brim with tears.

I gently put my hand on his arm as he tried to look through the window, trying to stop him.

"No," he said, shrugging my hand away. "Whatever it is. I need to see."

Watching him peer through the window, searching the inside of his house, I waited for his heart to break.

When tears filled his eyes, I knew he had seen it, too.

"Dad." He breathed, choked by his devastation.

Wiping his tears away, he took a deep breath in before looking around the living room again. "Where's my mum?"

Confused, I turned to face the window and looked inside. She was gone. He didn't see what she had become.

"Ben..." I started, but I didn't know where to begin. "She... Your mum, I saw her."

Suddenly, something threw itself against the window, making us both jump back in fright.

"Mum!" Ben yelled, falling to his knees. "No. No, no, no, no, no."

He couldn't contain his tears anymore, they streamed down his face as he stared helplessly what used to be his mother.

Her fingers had been gnawed on, she had chewed her own fingertips off during her feast. Blood smeared onto the glass as she tried to bite through it, her lips and teeth covered in her husband's flesh. I could see from the festering laceration on her hand that she had been bitten. Red raw and inflamed, it had already started to rot.

Wyatt and Jo had joined us, and together we sat with Ben on the porch, crying silently for our friend and his doomed mother and father.

After what felt like hours, I turned to face the garden, unable too bear the sight of the infected woman or her shattered son any longer.

My breath caught in my throat as I heard moaning from out on the street.

Peeking over the porch fence, I saw three zombies shuffling passed the house.

I held my arm out to warn Jo and Wyatt, and they slowly turned around, following my gaze. Wyatt put his hand on Ben's shoulder, signalling him to stay down. We sat on the porch, barely breathing as we watched the zombies continue slowly down the street.

"We need to go." I mouthed to Wyatt, who nodded in response.

"Ben, mate," he said softly as he tried to look into Ben's eyes. "I'm really sorry, but we need to go. It's not safe for us here."

Wyatt helped Ben to his feet, but he pulled away and moved closer to the window, standing face to face with his mother.

She growled at him as she pushed her palms onto the glass, trying to break through.

Ben held his hand up to hers, tears spilling onto his trembling lips as he looked into her dead eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Mum," he sniffed. "I love you so much. Goodbye."

He closed his eyes and inhaled a long, deep breath before stepping back from the window and turning away.

Wyatt and I followed behind as Ben walked passed us and headed for the RV, wiping his tears on his sleeve.

No-one said anything as we buckled our seat belts and drove away.

With barely any cars on the road, it didn't take long for us to make it out of Melbourne. Heaviness filled the RV, each of us lost deep in our own thoughts as we watched the last of the neighbourhoods fly passed our windows.

As I slowly began to drift into sleep, I felt my heart ache for everything, and everyone, we were leaving behind.

What lay ahead for us remained to be seen, but as Melbourne lay in ruins behind us, I hoped it would be better than what we found today.

Chapter Fifteen.

I gazed out the window, staring thoughtfully up at the clouds as the sun started to set.

I had managed to sleep for a short while, but my fierce nightmares had jolted me awake. All I saw when I closed my eyes were the rancid, gruesome faces of the infected.

I couldn't stop thinking about how quickly this had all happened. A mere twenty-four hours ago, those rabid monsters were normal human beings going about their lives; going to work, worrying about paying bills, picking their children up from school. Their lives changed in an instant. The entire country changed in an instant.

"Eva," whispered Ben as he walked over from the driver's cabin and sat next to me, waking me from my thoughts.

He held one of our many first aid kits in his hands. "Here, let me look at your arm."

He turned on one of the ceiling lights above me while I started unwrapping the scarf from around my arm.

"Ok, it's not too bad," he said as he gently wiped my cut with a cleaning pad from the kit, making me flinch. "It's only about a centimetre deep, so it won't need stitches or anything. I'll just clean it and bandage it up."

I watched him as he took such gentle care of my arm. I had been in awe of his strength ever since we left his parent's house.

"Thanks heaps, Ben. How are you?" I asked, instantly regretting asking such an inane question.

"I'm... I don't know. Just keeping myself busy, I guess," he sighed, wrapping a bandage around my arm and clipping it into place. "How did you get through this when..."

He stopped and bowed his head, unable to say it.

I knew what he was going through all too well. Months passed before I could physically say that my parents had died, as though somehow it wouldn't be real until I uttered those agonising words.

"To be honest, I'm not sure how I got through it," I replied, not wanting to sugar-coat the pain he was going through. "I just did. It hurt like hell, and I think it always will, but I've learned to live with it. I don't understand why it happened, and I wish it didn't, but it did. I learned to accept that."

It has been so long since I spoke about the death of my parents, that just hearing those words come out of my mouth made me realise how far I've come since that tough time. But my heart ached for Ben, knowing he was only at the very beginning of this shattering experience.

"I know it feels like the whole world is crumbling around you, Ben... and I guess in a way it is, with everything that's happening. And you know what? It's okay. It's okay that you feel that numb. It's okay that you feel like shit. It's okay. Feel it. Then, once you've had enough of feeling that way, let it go. Change it. Shift your focus to the things that make you happy. Remember the good times you had with your parents. But right now, just feel it." I took a breath, surprised at the wisdom I had just imparted. I hoped desperately that I had helped ease his pain, even just a little.

Ben looked up at me with tears in his eyes and hugged me tight.

Seeing the heartbreak in his eyes, I finally knew what it felt like to be on the other end of this exchange. The only difference being he would never see relief in my eyes, I had already survived that tragedy; it didn't scare me anymore.

"Thanks, Eva." Ben sniffed as he stood up.

"No worries, Ben. We're all here for you." I replied, giving him a slight smile.

As he packed up the first aid kit and climbed back into the driver's cabin, I looked over at Jo as she slept. All of a sudden, these three human beings were all I had. Now, a new fear loomed over me; losing one of our little tribe.

It's us against the world now.