Prologue

          Prologue

          My name is Nicole Print, and this is the story of how I regained hope in the world I live in. My friends and I used to lead normal lives, we went to uni, we worked part-time jobs, we had a good life ahead of us. But one day a new flu vaccine came out, and thousands of people took the shot, and it wasn’t until three days later that people connected the dots. Everyone who took the vaccine got sick. It started like a pretty normal sickness, but then they started vomiting blood. At that point most got hospitalised, and after within 72 hours of being vaccinated they were dead. But they didn’t stay dead for long. It sounds crazy doesn’t it? The ‘Zombie Apocalypse.’ But that’s what happened. Because those who were vaccinated were hospitalized the hospitals were overrun quickly, those who were vaccinated later on where either killed by mobs, or hid amongst them, hoping it wasn’t true. Most non-infected people ran for the police stations and fire stations, and that was when the army rolled in.

          The army picked up every policeman or firefighter that was there and any un-infected civilians they could take, then left the rest behind. It was a death sentence. Those first few days were chaos, no matter what time it was or where you were the sounds of death and destruction were everywhere. And when it stopped, it was even worse, it was quieter than ever before, no midnight traffic, no crying babies. Silence.

          When the news spread about what was happening I was at work, and immediately I tried to get home, to my family. I took too long I guess, I couldn’t reach them by phone because the lines were down, and I had to abandon my car after being stuck in traffic for hours. So by the time I got home all I found was a broken door and an empty house. My mother and father, my brother Adrian, all gone.

          That was where Will found me, along with Todd, Jade and a man named Caleb. They helped me focus on surviving, and we became a team. Our numbers grew, most were friends from before like Daniel, others were strangers we had to learn to trust, like Connor and Brooke. Todd became our leader, but when we was out I was in charge. I don’t pretend like I’m confident in that position, but if I’m being honest I’d rather it be me than some of these others. At first it seemed like Will was the best choice, but after we lost Caleb he lost his nerve, and now he might even be infected. Surviving isn’t easy, we lost Caleb at the hospital while trying to gather medicine, and then Brooke while we were negotiating with another group. The Resistance they called themselves, and they were huge. Led by a woman called Jacobs they offered us a chance to join a community again, but it all went wrong when we found that one of her men was secretly a man we know as Anthony, a ruthless man who killed Brooke and has terrorised us in the past. He used to lead a group known as the Marauders, but they were wiped out by the dead, we can only hope Anthony has met the same fate. We parted ways with the Resistance on good terms, and they even left us with one of their own, Lindsey, so that she can contact them if we ever decide to join their nomadic community. But we already had a home, or so we thought.

          We had set up in an abandoned warehouse, we had built up the defences well and the immediate area was clear of the dead. But not for long. We learnt the hard way that if the dead are deprived of food for too long, they gather in huge numbers and head towards whatever signs of life the can find. No matter how far we were, they would’ve found us. Todd risked his life to save us, but we rescued him in the end, but had to abandon Haven. So now where back on the road, at first we were going to signal the Resistance and join them, but then we heard something impossible on a car radio, it was a message, from a man named Lewis in Melbourne. He was a scientist working in some labs to find a vaccine for the infection, a way to set the world back on track.

So we decided the Resistance could wait, it might be safer for us in the long term to go with them, but eventually we’d be overrun. A vaccine was the first step towards true salvation, and we had to try and help, even if we couldn’t. I wish I could say I believed that completely, but I had my doubts. Most of my friends had changed so much these past few months, grown into survivors. I still felt like a med student, a girl. I didn’t want to fire a gun, I didn’t want to save humanity. But I did want to protect my friends, and if that meant heading into the most horrifying place I could imagine on the off chance I can do some helpful science, then I’ll do it. Or at least, I’ll try.