The Name Always Comes at The End
Dedication
To Miss Atayde, Mrs Abbott-Atchison, Mr Bonnici and Mr Louie for helping us with motivation in writing this story, feedback and support. I (Daniel Bates) would like to thank my friends Beau Louie, Max Klein-Schiphorst, Noah Lockwood and Philip Yoon for making this story happen and I am glad we did. Thank you.
Prologue:
Scientists are panicking trying to fix the problem but are failing. No one knows how it started, but it did, and its lingering.
A science experiment gone wrong?
A new disease?
Zombies are attacking civilians; the news hasn't reached everyone yet.
Simon stares out of the distance to see his life change forever…
Chapter 1
Lightning goes boom!
Jet-black skies stretched as far as the eye could see, illuminous streaks of searing white lit up the sky, head-splittingly loud thunder echoed inside Simon’s head. Simon looked at his watch, 10:26 am. Simon’s pencil scribbled manically.
…explosion at Brisbane Water nuclear-power plant… many lives lost… infectious disease may be present…will report later with more information. The radio distortedly reported in the background.
Simon raised his hand to be excused for the toilet. He stood up and retraced his steps out of the classroom. Numbingly icy winds coursed through Simon’s v-neck, knitted sweater. He paced down the skinny strip of pavement and bent down to get the familiar cold liquid that escaped the fountain.
Simon stood up and wiped the trickling water that slipped under his sweater and made him shiver. He froze. Four dark figures sporadically littered the dirty-brown oval. They stood there. Twitching with irregular, jagged movements. Just standing. They didn’t seem normal. The booming thunderstorm drowned out his calls. They just stood still.
Cautiously, Simon walked off of the pavement and onto the slippery grass. His pace quickened as his teeth chattered and his lips quivered. One of the figures turned, and limped, groaning and dragging its foot along the mud.
“Are you okay, your ankle looks stuffed, did you want help”?
Lightning streaked the sky, Simon froze. Pale hollow cheeks, with sunken decaying eyes and droopy skin. Blood dribbled from the thing's mouth, its right side of the mouth ripped off, stained yellow teeth snarled at Simon.
Chapter 2
Hammer Time!
Simon stood still. He gripped his shirt and froze. Screams held onto the sleeves of his sweater. In a blur, a padded figure bolted past Simon and slammed a tool into the thing
A metallic clang reverberated, echoing throughout the air. The thing collapsed to the ground with a groan and Simon clasped his mouth. The padded figure spun around.
“Simon, it’s me, Mr Criff, you need to get away from that”
“You just hit a student!”
“ -...zombie”.
“Are you kidding me, don’t be stupid. That’s not a zombie! They aren’t real.”
“Yeah, explain this then”.
Vivacious, scrawny Mr Criff wouldn’t hurt a fly. He let the lizard that snuck Simon’s class out, using gentle care and being as soft as possible. He stood still and then walked closer to the “zombie”. It snarled and growled, crawling closer and closer and gripped his leg. It opened its mouth and chomped down, swiftly Mr Criff put his hammer in the zombies’ jaw right where it would have chomped down onto his leg. In retaliation, he kicked the zombie off and swung his hammer down to meet the zombie's skull. Mr Criff grabbed Simon and took him with him to the safety of the TECH rooms.
Mr Criff wouldn’t hurt a fly. Simon bent over and threw up, vile green vomit connected with the floor. Simon’s stomach seized with the strain of throwing up, the memory of that hammer swinging down replayed over and over in his head.
“Better out than in”, Mr Criff stated. “Grab this.”
Simon righted himself and took the hammer.
“Thaaa…nks?”
“We need to get out of here, this place is littered with zombies, we can take my car. I need to get my pet and we can see if your parents are where they are. Where are they?”
“They’d be… at…home”, Simon said between wheezing breaths.
“Alright, let’s go”.
They grabbed their hammers and creeped to the door. Mr Criff mouthed, stay still and be quiet. He opened the door and walked out.
Silence was eerie, unavoidable nothingness. Silence is the void, broken by noise, shattering like glass. Seconds stretched and seemed like forever.
Simon stood up and pulled the blinds, peering out of the wind. More zombies littered the oval. A black silhouette popped up. Simon covered his mouth to muffle his slight scream.
He relaxed, the familiar black coat he saw previously that Mr Criff had on. Only, this one had short sleeves, a distorted tattoo ran down the neck of the person. It spun around.
A loose eye slapped the window and smeared its vitreous fluid along the glass. The distorted head moaned loudly. Simon screamed and ducked. He peered up to see the curious head, or what was left of it, looked through the window in jagged motions, peering to see Simon. A few seconds later, another zombie joined him and another. Simon clasped the hammer with tight hands.
His knuckles went white, his teeth chattered, his legs wobbled and he felt vile start to come up.
“Pull yourself together.” He hopelessly whispered to himself.
He commando crawled along the ground for a few meters. He climbed up the table and peered out the window. He saw the zombies aimlessly walking into the glass and smacking their heads against the window.
Chapter 3
Getaway Car
Simon observed around and saw many bodies now, an increase in zombies scattered sporadically on the oval. Their bodies moving irregularly, black silhouettes dancing in the dark. His eyes scanned the distances to the left and then he peered to the right and saw scrawny Mr Criff hiding around the nearby corner. Simon waved to get his attention, after many attempts, he saw Simon flagging him down. Five meters away from the window, Mr Criff closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. Simon’s hand traced the windowsill until he found the black knob and flicked it open to unlock the window. Carefully, he slid the frame along. It squeaked and rattled but the noise was cancelled out by the deafening storm.
The window was about five feet off the ground. Mr Criff looked Simon dead in the eyes and pointed to his hammer. Simon understood. Mr Criff threw the hammer into Simon's hands, he caught it. He then mouthed, move out of the way. The slippery metal hammer, slick from the rain, fumbled in his hands and slipped onto the table. CLANG!
“Move out of the way Simon”!
Simon turned his head as he jumped back off of the table and saw the zombies abruptly cock their heads and pace towards Mr Criff. Mr Criff leaped through the window and on top of Simon.
“Sorry about that mate”. Simon stood up and brushed himself off.
He looked at the window and saw the snarling heads had caught up, biting air and aimlessly groaning.
“We need to get out of here”, Mr Criff stated.
“Agreed”.
They ran to the back of the classroom and quickly opened the window. “Follow me”, Mr Criff whispered.
They both climbed through the window and ran. As fast as they could. Simon trailed behind Mr Criff. A zombie came in their path and Mr Criff smashed them with a hammer.
They continued running when something gripped Simon’s foot. A hand groped his foot and crawled up his legs. The waist and below of the zombie was nowhere to be seen.
Dangling intestines like spaghetti noodles, stained Simon’s pants. Simon covered his eyes and froze. The smell was putrid, bacteria breaking down the flesh, a rotting corpse.
Singeing Simon’s nostril hairs and making him retch.
He peeked through his fingers, it crawled up his legs, biting in the direction of his face, inching closer and closer. He looked up to see the downward swing of a hammer. He slammed his eyes shut and the zombie went still. A warm liquid trickled down the top of his pants, and down his fingers, sending shivers coursing through his body and making
him shiver. It was dead. Lifeless on his lap. His lap became lighter and the soft echo of Mr Criff’s voice rang out through Simon’s head.
“We need to go!”
Simon opened his eyes and looked down at his lap. Dark red, stained an organic shape on his torso and lap. He looked up at Mr Criff and stood up. Simon looked down at his hands, closing his eyes and then taking a deep breath. Simon stuck close behind Mr Criff as he cleared a path. Kicking, pushing and hitting zombies that came in their way. They ran into the carpark and stopped at a beat-up bronze 2011 Subaru Impreza.
“This is it”, Mr Criff stated.
Chapter 4
Gear Apocalypse
“Just one second Simon”, Criff said as he was trying to start his car quickly.
He got his car keys for his 2011 Subaru Impreza. “Damn it” he whispered to himself as the car read ‘LOW FUEL’. Simon suddenly realized that there was fuel in one of the technology workshops. They’re on a mission, and there is no time to waste.
Classroom ‘DR’ or Design Room sat between the two workshops. Crouched down, Mr Criff and Simon searched for fuel. Criff tapped Simon’s shoulder. Simon turned around to see that sir was pointing at a cardboard box read with ‘FLAMMABLE’. Simon, the brave student from Year 9, stood up to grab a carton of fuel to save them forever.
SMASH! A zombie’s hand came flying in and grabbed Simon’s hair, pulling him out of the broken, glass window. Simon screamed, searching his head off, for a possibility. The only thing he could get his hands on… was the fuel. He held the fuel with his powerful grip and smacked the zombie in the face, without stopping to think about it. When the can of petrol hit the monstrous face, the room exploded. Leaving only the remains of the ones who have died.
The explosion destroyed all four walls of the technology workshop facilities. Mr Criff and Simon somehow survived the blast. They couldn’t give up, not now. Mr Criff lifted his head to search the room.
“Get up, hurry” he whispered to Simon.
They slowly crawled up before hitting the back of the room. Sunlight hit the room, lighting up the entire area. Cloud filled the room with dark figures and their silhouettes being the only thing Simon and Criffs could see. The silhouettes, the five of them, began to shake. Their legs started to move forward, quickly, quicker. The figures were together, united, as a group, as a culture. The zombies wanted their brains! Mr Criff and Simon sprinted for the nearest emergency exit. The door opened and was presented with a blood red sky.
“We are still out of fuel” Simon was upset, he wanted to give up. But he couldn’t, not now. He needed to believe, be plausible, have faith in himself.
The sound of thunder awoke from the clouds. But the sound of destruction changed, into the sound of a motorbike engine. A motorbike was spinning in circles under a dead tree, unoccupied.
“You thinking what I’m thinking Simon?” Mr Criff was sparked with a brilliant idea.
“To get the bikes petrol?” Simon asked.
“No, you silly. We’re going to drive it, use it. Until the end of the line”.
Chapter 5
Retrieval of Arnott
Simon and Mr Criff drove out of the school in style on the motorbike. The two rushed back to their houses, without skipping a heart beat. Their homes were only a few blocks away. The street was filled with silence, silent as a held note. No zombie was present in the scene, luckily. Desperately, they both hoped to find any signs of life or if anyone has returned back to the school safely. “I need to check on my family” Simon panicked and headed to his home. Mr Criff headed to his house too, which was thankfully in the exact same street.
“Hello?” said Simon’s voice with hope, no answer.
The house was empty as a blank canvas. His parents weren’t home. Were his parents alive? That was the million dollar question. In Mr Criff’s house, he was thankful to see that his beloved pet parrot, Arnott, was alive and healthy. Arnott was the newest member to this journey, the rookie. They scavenged for resources, materials and aid supplies which were all at the top of the list. Packing equipment to survive for days was a big flip of a coin, as the uncertainty loomed amongst them. The crew were unsure if they were going to wake up tomorrow and see another day. Leaving town was the only option.
While they were searching in Mr Criff’s house, a sudden squeaking sound broke the silence. It was followed by a voice-coming from the radio. The radio crackled to life,
delivering a message that instructed us to head to Sydney Harbour, where the helicopter would be waiting to rescue any survivors from the rooftop. However, there was a huge problem, there was no clear or safe way for us to get there.
“The name always comes at the end, the name always comes at the end, the name always comes at the end.” Arnott repeated.
“He always says that, I don’t know why but he does. Nothing else.” Mr Criff stated.
Mr. Criff was adamant that we should find a way, no matter the obstacles. So we began to brainstorm, realizing that we would need to be resourceful and courageous to overcome the obstacles in our path. We considered the available options-finding a vehicle, navigating through potentially dangerous areas, and avoiding any threats that might have arisen. Our journey would be perilous, but it was our only chance for salvation.
The urgency of the situation weighed heavily on us. We quickly gathered whatever supplies we could find: like food, water, first aid kits, and any tools that might be useful against the dead and helpful to us. Mr. Criff even managed to find a makeshift cage for Arnott, ensuring the parrot’s safety during our journey.
“The name always comes at the end”.
Our spirits were slightly alleviated by the thought of potential rescue, but the anxiety of the unknown still lingered. With our preparation complete, we rushed to the closest boat
docks to see if there was a speed boat that we could use to get to the bridge. I found a boat that still had some fuel in it, making sure that it was a fast one. I yelled to Mr. Criff asking if was ready to go and we jumped into the boat and speeded off to the range of the bridge.
Chapter 6
Brisbane Water Hijack
They made it. The wharf at Brisbane Water sat at their feet, with a beautiful sunset in the blood red sky. What a day it has been for the student, the teacher and the beloved parrot, Arnott, a colourful red, blue and yellow bird who can speak. The good friends had no other choice but to survive with each other. The game plan for survival is to hijack a boat to get to Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“The name always comes at the end” said Arnott again, as if he is programmed to say it over and over again.
The good news is, they have the boat, it's in their hands. However, the bad news is there are flesh eating flesh zombies absolutely everywhere left right and centre on the docks.
From head to toe. Simon, Mr Criff and Arnott are out of options. They must use their bodies and fists and the hammer that Simon has to defeat the zombies. Defeat!? Can they be defeated? Can they be stopped? Will there be a cure? A happily ever after? No time to think, no time to stop, only time to act. Out of the 25 million citizens that live in Australia, only 2 are living, breathing and are non-infected. Simon, Mr Criff and of course Arnott undermined how difficult it would be to fight off Australian zombies because of how strong they are. Their families and friends. They will never be forgotten. They will always be loved and our brains will always be wanted.
To just fight over a hundred zombies to get to a boat you need to find their weakness and their weakness is their brain so Simon attacks the brain on the zombies they will be easier to attack and kill. Simon sprinted through the massive crowd of zombies with the hammer to hit as many as possible without getting bit or scratched. Mr Criff made it in the speed boat with his parrot Arnott but Simon was still fighting all the zombies but there were too many so he ran for his life to the boat and jumped.
Crash! Simon landed into the boat where Mr Criff was in the driver's seat driving the speed boat to Sydney harbor. As Simon turned around he saw a dead gross looking zombie head rolling around on the ground in a pile of thick red blood at the back of the boat. As they drove through the dark scary muddy mangroves they started to hear a strange sound, then they looked up and saw tons of ugly looking zombies climbing trees to try to jump on the speedboat when it went by all of the tall oak trees. They all started to jump, most missed the boat but some made it on the front and started to scratch the boat, only to fall off from the speed that they were going through the mangroves. Brisbane
Water’s water began to narrow into tiny little rivers. It had three paths but only one leads them to Sydney. On their way to the safety point, they made way for Sydney Harbour.
Chapter 7
Trapped in the Harbour
“The name always comes at the end”. Simon and Mr Criff are close to the Harbour Bridge now there’s one problem that confronts them. Getting past the lifeless zombies. They discuss how they are going to get past the horde of zombies just staring into the ground like idiots. They cut the engine and start climbing up with hiking equipment that they found in the speedboat. They snuck up to the walkway and started climbing up the rusty structure of the bridge. Just as they were about to get past the corner of the bridge, a hammer in Simon’s back pocket fell out and dropped with a clank. Within a second, every eye was staring at Simon and Mr Criff. Arnott squawked with terror. The zombies rushed towards us groaning and drooling.
The two people and Arnott hustled up the steel bridge and the zombies weren’t far behind. They thought there would be more time but the zombies were smarter than they anticipated as they were climbing on the other side of the bridge. They are trapped. Mr Criff stared up to see a military helicopter flying in the air. The one way ticket to safety. The sense or jubilance rushed through their minds. Arnott squawked, “hooray!” The military let down a rope to Simon and Mr Criff. Arnott flew up first, then Simon and lastly, Mr Criff. While The two were climbing up onto the chopper, a zombie grabbed Mr Criff by his ankle and attempted to pull him down. More and more zombies started getting a hold on Mr Criff. Simon got into the helicopter and gave a hand to Mr Criff. Simon couldn’t reach Mr Criff’s hand. At this point, Mr Criff will be taken down.
“Give up, kid, we can’t save him. If we don’t leave now, we are all doomed. Plus, we don’t need an old man to be saved. It’s not like he’s gonna live longer or anything”, denounced the soldier.
Arnott pecked at Simon’s head. “Arnott, we don’t have time for any of your jokes”, shouted Simon.
Arnott stopped pecking and stayed quiet. The helicopter was slowly getting pulled as zombies crowded around and piled on top of each other.
“It’s no use Simon. At this rate, I will be the reason you guys take a wrong turn. I am a teacher and an adult so it is my duty to keep you safe. Farewell Simon.”
Simon screamed as Mr Criff let go of the rope.
The helicopter jumped as if it just dropped weights while hanging on to life. The helicopter started flying away from the horrific view of the Harbour bridge. Arnott started pecking Simon again.
“What is it now?” Simon asked.
“The answer always comes at the end.”
“What do you mean by that?” TArnott repeated over and over again: “The answer always comes at the end. the name always comes at the end.
The revelation:
The name… Mr Criff… comes at the end. Criff was our sac-CRIFF-ice.
The large, long helicopter ride was very quiet because of what happened the whole day with Simon Criff and Arnott, Simon wasn’t really sure of where he was being taken or even knew who his savers were, but he did not care he just wanted to get out of there.