Dash Dash Dot Dot

The Fire Pit

Three days later the rolling blackouts started. The virus had spread through the Northern Territory, Queensland and the top half of Western Australia; it was now entering South Australia and New South Wales. Willow estimated that it would roughly take another day or so to reach the border of the Australian Capital Territory. More neighbors in her complex had left, leaving five apartments occupied out of the eighteen. She had spoken briefly with one of the remaining neighbors who had the intention of staying put like she did, until they could no longer sustain themselves. The TV was now useless with no power so the only communication with the outside world was via the radio. But so far the only thing on the emergency broadcast was a prerecorded message asking people to remain indoors to stay safe from the infected; which was intermittently interrupted by an update on the spread of the virus.

Willow began dismantling the wooden fence around the property, breaking the palings down to fit into her fire pit. She would need it for light and warmth. She set it up near the front window so the smoke had somewhere to go. It wasn't ideal but at least it was better than nothing, she wished that she had moved into a place with a balcony. She poured a can of baked beans into the cast iron pot she had and placed it on the grill of the fire pit to heat. It was so quiet without the hum of electricity or the sound of cars on the road, all the heard was the crackle of the fire and the soft pops as the thick liquid in the pot of baked beans heated up. The radio was the only other sound, keeping the volume low, waiting for something else to come on to it. She read one of the many books she had on the shelf but hadn't had the time to read. Technology had pulled her away from the paper pages, replacing them with a swipe or tap on the screen.

She thought about toast as she ate the baked beans from a bowl. For a quick dinner when she and Katie were young her dad used to do baked beans on toast with a fried egg. She stopped eating and stared at the beans in the bowl. She missed her sister, with everything that was happening she hadn't been afforded the opportunity to think about her. She had talked to her parents the day the virus had hit Australia, they didn't want her trying to travel and risk getting infected or killed. They lived in a gated community, the step just before a retirement village. Her father told her that he and the others in the management committee had begun to enforce the fences and set up other security measures to try to keep the infected out. Many of the resident’s families had moved into the gated area with them, giving more support to the safety of their community. He also told her that Kransky was living like a Queen, having settled into the small two bedroom townhouse as though she had lived there her entire life.

Willow had high hopes that the gated community would withstand the infected once they reached Victoria. Many of her friends in Queanbeyan had left to be with their families as well, so Willow felt even more isolated. Damian was only across the border in ACT but with what was coming it wouldn't be an easy trek to see him anymore. They had talked, he tried convincing her to come with him, but her stubbornness kept her in her own apartment. She still hadn't come to terms with the death of her sister and her grieving process had been interrupted by the spread of the virus. She was still having the occasional nightmare about the car accident but now when she escaped the vehicle and tried to go back for her sister she was attacked by zombies.

She finished eating her baked beans and found her box of old photos. She sorted through them, putting aside the ones she wanted to keep, if she had to run then she wanted pictures of her family and friends to come with her. She looked at the picture in her hand. It was Christmas Day. Katie had her arms wrapped around Willow in a bear hug; they had received what they had asked for. On either side of them were matching pink and purple bikes. Their helmets sat on the ground at their feet. Willow wiped the tears from her eyes but smiled. They had ridden those bikes for hours up and down the driveway and around the cul-de-sac. The other toys were forgotten until it was too dark to be outside. She gently placed the photo into the keep pile. Then she pulled out a picture of an ex. She pulled a face and tossed it into the fire pit, watching it burn; it was an odd sense of relief to do that.

She slid the keep pile into a zip lock bag and put it in her emergency bag near the front door. The knives in her bag were carefully wrapped with a towel so they wouldn't cut her while she was wearing the bag. Her baseball bat could be strapped to the side of the bag while travelling but she needed to sew another strap to the other side for the cricket back she had picked up at the store. The heavy cast iron pot could fit inside the bag and the cast iron fry pan could attach to the handle of the bag.

She bit her lip and picked the bag up. It was starting to get heavy with everything she was putting into it. She thought that she may have to leave the pot behind, that would give her a little more room inside the bag for other essentials, and if the carried the fry pan then that weight wouldn't be on her back, but may also slow her down by having a weapon in her hands, which was probably a smarter idea than trying to untie one of them in an emergency. The two bats were wood but didn't have a lot of weight in them. Everything she had was a close range weapon, she had nothing that she could shoot or throw, except maybe the knives, but being large kitchen knives it probably would be like throwing a stick at the infected.

Willow dropped down next to the fire pit, she needed to do some reading, she was getting in her head too much about the whole situation. As long as she was careful and quiet then she should be alright, but real life hardly ever went the way you wanted it to. Zombies taking over the world used to be nothing but stories and movies, but now, here she was in the middle of the beginning of the end. She chuckled to herself. That sounded so stupid, but it was true. Before she picked up her book to read she thought about the population of Queanbeyan and wondered how many of the 42,000 still remained, or how many had travelled here to be with their families, how much would it affect the population of survivors compared to the infected.

Her breath caught in her throat as the recorded message was interrupted by another update. The virus had hit the northern most part of Sydney. By car, that was a three hour drive to the southern part. So Canberra didn't have long to wait till they were in the midst of the infection. Willow laid back and just listened to the radio, the tears in her eyes made it too difficult to read her book, and her concentration was gone. Worry was starting to take over as she listened to the towns being listed as infected. She grabbed the teddy that her father had bought and her sister had picked out for her birth. She hugged it to her chest and cried to herself. The exhaustion overwhelmed her quickly as she lay next to the warmth of the fire pit. The wood continued to crackle softly, helping to lull her to sleep, she briefly fought the urge but it pulled her in and her dreams turned to nightmares.