• We treaded the streets of Sydney ever so carefully. It was strange, seeing it so deserted. It frightened me. I had so many questions. Like how this happened, why it happened and who survived. But it was too dangerous to speak at the moment.
    Tony led us to a shed behind a rather small house. The shed itself was quite big; almost as big as the house. As I walked into it, the first thing I noticed was the walls. There were guns everywhere. All different types of guns. I stared around me, bewildered. There were two beds against the far wall, surrounded by food and bottled water. I took a deep breath and turned to the others. Tony was closing the door, as soon as it was closed he slide a thick metal bar to the side, locking the door securely.
    “Won’t they find us here?” I asked.
    Tony put his gun on the table beside the door. “Probably not. They seem to rather be deep in the town.”
    I felt my throat make a sort of gargled noise as he said they. “What’s going on? What are... they?”
    “We don’t know.” I turned my head to see the girl (I learned her name was Felicia). She was leaning against another table right between the two beds.
    “Well, why are we the only ones not... like that?” I stumbled on the words.
    Tony closed his eyes and shook his head. “Look, we don’t know much more about it then you do. All we know is that one came into our house and attacked us this morning. Luckily, I have a few guns.”
    “A few?” I looked around at the room once again, making a sarcastic face.
    “Well, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
    “Look,” Felicia sounded irritated. “We’re wasting time. We should be out there, searching for other survivors.”
    “Felicia, we don’t know how many are out there. We don’t know anything! We can’t walk out of here blind. It’s too dangerous.”
    “No, it’s not. We have guns and food and shelter. We are safe.”
    “If we go out there, we won’t be!”
    “We can’t just sit in here!”
    “Yes, we can!”
    Felicia stared angrily at Tony for a long moment. I took a deep breath in. “That’s enough you two. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think Felicia is right. Besides, it’s either we stay in here and die, or we go out there and die. It’s your decision.”
    I wasn’t proud of the way I put it, but it had to be said. Who knew how many were out there. We don’t even know what they are. We don’t know how intelligent they are or if they have weapons. If most of the city’s population had been... changed, then we had no chance of surviving.
    Tony turned quickly around towards the wall of guns. I took a step back, afraid to get in his way. He grabbed a few pistols off the wall and put one behind him, in his jeans. He threw the other one to me and I just held it out, staring at it.
    “What are you doing?” I asked.
    “You want to go out and kill ourselves right? Well, I’m not going down without a fight.”
    “We can’t go out just yet. We need to figure something’s out.”
    “Like what?” Tony stared into my eyes with a furious expression on his face. I stared back, trying to remain calm.
    “Well, we need more supplies if we are going to go out there.”
    “We have everything we need in here.”
    “Really? Do you have coms? Walkie talkies? Something to send smoke signals with?”
    “Okay, okay. I get your point.” He sat there for a moment, rubbing his chin. “Okay, there’s a police station down the road. We can start there. There is probably an endless supply of ammo, food, health kits. Plus, we will find some way of communicating with each other.”
    I nodded. Then Felicia spoke up. I almost had a heart attack; I had forgotten she was there.
    “Good. That can be what we do for the rest of the day.”
    “Okay. But we also need to find a different shelter. This place is too out in the open. If they come barging on that door, we’ll be cornered.”
    “There’s a trapdoor under the carpet. It’s got extra food and blankets and everything we need. If we get ambushed, we can climb in there. They wouldn’t know.”
    Tony said this as if I should have known it. I rolled my eyes and was about to walk away, when suddenly he spoke back to me.
    “What’s your name, by the way?”
    I looked back at him over my shoulder. “Steph. Why?”
    “Well, I figured your name would come in handy.” And then he just walked away from me.
    I paced over to Felicia, who was looking rather calm.
    “Felicia?”
    She looked up at me as if I had just awoken her from a day-dream.
    “Hmm?”
    “I was wondering, do you have any other clothes? Or... shoes?”
    She breathed out and nodded as she began walking towards a large metal cupboard. Opening it, I saw that it was full of clothes and shoes. Everything we need.
    “I don’t know if you’re my size, but I’m sure you can find something that would fit. Those sneakers,” she began, “are too big for me. They might fit.” And then she walked away towards Tony. It was then that I started wondering what they were to each other. They live together so they could be in a relationship, but Felicia’s eyes are the same shade of green as Tony’s. Not to mention their skin is the same tanned colour. They could be related. I figured it was too rude to ask right now.
    Finally finding something that would fit, I stood behind the curtain of the mini shower that was in the far corner of the shed and got changed. I was changing into a singlet that was just a little bit too small for me, a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, and the sneakers that Felicia had pointed out beforehand. When I opened that curtain and stepped out, I saw Tony opening a large brief case; too big to just carry around. I walked over to him, looking over his shoulder into the case. There were heaps and heaps of grenades. Small ones and larger ones. There had to be at least twenty of them, side by side. My eyed widened.
    Tony picked up a few and hooked them onto his belt. He turned his head so slightly and I knew that he could see me out of the corner of his eye. He then reached over the case and grabbed a belt sort of thing, then reached back over his shoulder towards me.
    “You’ll need one. Trust me,” he said, not even looking at me. I took it hesitantly, and wrapped it around my waist. Before I knew it, he was handing me some grenades. I frowned as I hooked two of the three onto my belt. He saw my face.
    “I expect you know how to use them. You were quiet handy with a gun back at your house.”
    I looked up at him. “My father taught me well. He was a cop.”
    I was having trouble hooking the last one onto the belt, so Tony pushed my hands away and started doing it himself.
    “Do you have any family in town?” he hooked on the grenade and leaned back.
    “No. I was more of a... I kept to myself a lot.” I looked down at my belt. ‘Thanks.”
    “No problem. So, your Dad taught you how to fight?”
    I flung my hair out of eyes and looked up at him. “No. He taught me how to use a gun. The rest I picked up here and there.”
    “Why don’t I believe you?”
    He started smirking. I rolled my eyes and walked past him, brushing his shoulder slightly. I picked up a 45, just like the one I used to have, and examined it. I turned around and aimed it at Tony. He stood there, staring at me, not even flinching. I felt competitive, and I didn’t want to be the first to move or look away. We stood there for however long, until someone cleared their throat. Both of us turned to look at Felicia at the same time. She stood calm, with her hands on her hip.
    “Are we almost ready? It’s one o’clock. We better move soon.”
    I moved the piston down so it was aimed to my feet and looked at Tony again. He nodded at Felicia.
    “We should all gather the guns we need now. Then we’ll go.”
    I turned around towards the table, grabbed another 45 and put both tucked securely in the belt. Tony took a machine gun off of the wall and held it tightly. Felicia reached into a case on the opposite side of the shed and took a belt of knives out of it. She wrapped the belt around herself then grabbed a GP35 and put it on her boot. While she was doing that, I saw my chance to ask Tony a question.
    “Are you two related?”
    “We’re half siblings. But we’re also pretty good friends considering.”
    “Considering what?”
    “Considering stereotypically, half siblings don’t get along.”
    I held back a laugh as Felicia paced towards us, examining a blade she had just pulled out of her belt.
    “We ready?” she asked, not looking up from the knife.
    I looked at Tony, who looked at me. Then we turned back to Felicia, who now had all her blades in her belt.
    I armed one of my pistols. “Absolutely.”

    Chapter One