Runners ... by Jack

Prologue

Branch by branch Monkey Max heaved himself up the towering tree several metres in the air.

"Come down now Monkey Max!" said Mrs. Rumblelow, his mum.

"Ner ner ner ner ner! I'm coming down now," said Monkey Max teasing Mrs. Rumblelow. Suddenly Monkey Max slipped, his hands flailing to grab anything. Then it went black...

Monkey Max

I lay there completely still, pain shooting through my body. My eyes firmly shut. An eerie silence surrounding me. I slowly opened my eyes to a hellish sinister mix of red and black that hung in the air. I looked to find no clouds were in the distance. I tried to get up but pain surged through my body. My temples throbbed more than ever. I quickly realized that my head was lying in a pool of my own sticky blood. I lay there as a mere seven year old child, bleeding to death. Quiet sounds rang out. Hope I thought. It became almost impossible to focus on anything, I found myself drifting away. It was the blood loss. The blackness enveloped me and I couldn't think...

Monkey Max

I tried to figure out where I was. I was on a bed, there was a clock and bedside table and a door. I slowly put my hand to my head, relieved it wasn't bleeding anymore. The doors flung open and a mid-thirty year old woman walked in.

"Hi, what is your name?" she said softly.

"Monkey Max," I said a little too fast.

"What's happening in the world? Why is it all red?" I asked.

"I'm not sure but I want to find out. Would you explore with me?" she asks.

I immediately say "Yes."

"Oh and my name is Penelope."

Penelope

I walked out of the room and returned with two machetes, one for me the other for Max.

"Why do we need machetes?" Max said, now frightened.

"Just in case, for protection," I say to Monkey Max.

"Ok..." his voice quivering.

I go through cupboards picking up any cans I can find. In the end I managed to find cans of tuna, beans and a corn.

"Are you ready?" I say to Max.

"I'm feeling a bit weak," Max admitted.

"Alright we will go first thing in the morning," I say.

Monkey Max

We venture outside and I let out a long gasp looking at the new world. Flipped cars, debris, remnants of houses... the end. The apocalypse. We found an apartment and smashed the window and looted useful supplies. All of a sudden I think what's the date. "What's the date Penelope?" I ask.

"Second of May 2014," she replies.

Just two days and this is the world. Burnt, destroyed, ruined. We walk out of the apartment and I see another human, then another and another. Three in total, they slowly turn around and right there is Mrs Rumblelow.

Monkey Max

There she is right there. Her eyes seem like they are looking at nothing. I feel like running to her. It looks like she's in a weird trance until her eyes lock onto me. Then she starts to run, closer and closer until I see the blood and gore smeared over her jaw. Penelope and I run fast the other way. The other creatures notice and follow. We run through cluttered and ruined streets, stumbling over the rubble. I risked a quick glance behind to see where the creatures were. They were gaining.

"Duck!" a voice boomed. I ducked as several bullets rang out piercing into the inhuman people. Mrs Rumblelow looked at me as if asking for help but I just stood there, frozen in time, breathing slowly.

"We have to go," said Penelope.

"Ok," I said following.

We went to the closest apartment to see who shot those bullets. Inside was a male teen about eighteen, nineteen standing near a Dragunov (sniper rifle) with several cans of beans, spaghetti and beetroot.

"Who are you?" Penelope said to the male teen.

"My name's Jack," the teen replied.

"How did you get that weaponry?" asked Penelope. Her machete now looking weak.

"On the day of the attack I saw some jets drop a weird purple substance that seemed to hang in the air. I hid in a basement and waited for it to clear and there was a massive downpour and I think it washed the substance that turned everyone into those," he paused looking for a word. "Creatures. Then I found the remnants of some guns and cans from a swat team," replied Jack.

"But if they had cans that means they were prepared for the attack on Australia," said Penelope.

"Maybe," replied Jack.

"I can show you what I've found," said Jack.

He then walked over to a cabinet revealing frag grenades, flash bangs, countless Glocks, revolvers, carbines, SMGs, 8mm El Diablos and an AK-47.

"Wow! What a wide range of weapons," said a stunned Penelope.

An ear splitting bang suddenly rang out. Several creatures ran at them. Jack immediately threw a SMG to Penelope, a revolver to me and kept an El Diablo for himself. Penelope continuously held down the trigger, pointing the gun to the inhuman creatures. Jack was a good shot, the bullets from his El Diablo usually finding the creatures heads.

"We can't hold them, we have to go!" yelled Jack, as more creatures poured in. He smashed the window and followed the windowsill to the next room. Jack had some rope in his backpack and used it to abseil down the building, the creatures still chasing us.

"I think we should call these guys the Runners, they never stop chasing you," joked Jack.

"We should get to Eureka Tower," said Jack. We hijacked a red Mazda and drove through the ruins of Melbourne to the Eureka Tower.

Jack

Penelope, Monkey Max and I drove to the Eureka Tower. We needed height to see the extent of the attack we had just survived, but I had to get Monkey Max and Penelope alone. We arrived at Eureka and scaled the stairs until we got to the top. Penelope and I went to some nearby buildings without Max and obtained some mattresses, blankets and canned food.

Monkey Max

I stared at her eyes as she was shot by Jack. Mrs Rumblelow, my mum, her stare so firm, her eyes on mine, her eyes burnt into my soul. I blinked. I was on my portable mattress, I got up and wandered to the Eureka Skydeck. It seemed about 7.30am.

"What are you doing?" asked Penelope.

"Nothing," I replied.

An hour later I was eating canned spaghetti and beetroot for breakfast.

"I think we should scavenge for supplies, we only have a couple more days of food left," said Jack.

"Let's go while it's still early," replied Penelope.

After we escaped Jack's house we had lost all weapons except the SMG, El Diablo, and the revolver. Jack now put them in his backpack. We walk down countless, never ending stairs until we reach the bottom. We loot each place until it is almost dark. We start back to the Eureka Tower but there were two runners blocking our path.

"How are we going to get past?" I say to both Penelope and Jack.

"We will have to sneak by" replies Jack. We creep around to the other side, near the wall where the runners were. Suddenly Jack trips over, the runners turn around and we run as hard and fast as we can. We run forever but we just can't lose them. We jump a fence into a house near Alma Road and hide there.

"Finally!" Jack says, turning around with a wicked grin.

Monkey Max

"Now I'm going to tell you what I know. The USA created a bio agent that would infect people through the air. It's only weakness was rain could wash it away. They created an antidote and placed it in certain towns to prevent it becoming an extinction level event. I was sent into Australia three weeks before the control event. I was issued to infect any survivors. They also created inoculations for the Americans who led the control event, like me. Jack reached into his pocket to reveal two syringes. Jack spoke up again "So these syringes hold the virus, I'm going to infect you with it."

This hit me hard in the stomach.

"You can't!" I screamed. Cursing and thrashing Jack injected me with the virus and instantly a sinister barrier blocked me from Monkey Max, all I wanted to do was KILL!

Penelope

I saw Jack injecting Monkey Max. The traitor came over to me. I was quiet as he plummeted the syringe into my arm. My past thoughts slipped before me. Now all I wanted was to kill.

Epilogue

Jack went to his Australian HQ for more information on the control event.

"All survivors terminated!" he reported.

"Great job Jack," replied the American commander "Let's go for Russia next..."