I remember when I first moved to Sydney and I had just become friends with Jack and Maria. Maria had invited me over to her place for a pool party. She had this awesome infinity pool that looked out over Sydney Harbor. I was so mesmerized by the view that I forgot to put on sun block. Approximately thirty minutes later I was sun burnt to a crisp. I looked like a freaking lobster. Jack called me ‘Pinchy’, who was apparently Homer’s pet lobster in an episode of ‘The Simpsons’. For days I was red, and dehydrated. For days my skin was on fire.

I never wanted to feel like that ever again. But as I walked across the Australian desert, that’s exactly how I felt. Constantly burning, my skin on fire. Dehydrated. Thirsty.

We were all lobsters.

A few days after we decided to head south, we found an abandoned cop car. The trunk and the back seat were packed full with guns and ammunition.

We picked up hand guns, a shot gun and another two rifles.

We each had a rifle now. Daniel took the shot gun.

With the exception of Maria, who never really looked comfortable holding a gun, we were starting to look more and more like soldiers. In my mind, we were a crack team of warriors on a mission to save the world.

Yeah, out in the desert, it’s easy to lose yourself in day dreams and stupid fantasies.

The guns and ammo were a great find. But ultimately it was another sign that society in this part of the world had crumbled.

To make sure we could all use the guns we had found, Daniel and Kenji decided to teach Jack and Maria and myself how to shoot properly. The shotgun kicked like a damn horse. Jack wasn’t holding it properly this one time and he nearly dislocated his shoulder. We were all a lot more careful after that.

And we had to be careful with our ammo supply as well. We argued about whether or not we should even practice shooting. After all, ammunition was a precious commodity.

The problem was, at their present skill level, Jack and Maria were pretty useless with a gun. If it came down to it, and either one of them was forced to use a rifle to protect themselves or the group, it would basically be a waste of ammo.

I was a little better than those two but not by much. So I was glad for the extra practice.

But we still had to be cautious. As a result, lessons were few and far between. I mean, maybe we should’ve saved every last bullet for when the time came. But in the end, we decided it was better if we all got some shooting practice under our belts. Five shooters are better than two, right?

The trick was to make every bullet count. I hope we did.

The next day after we found the abandoned cop car we came to a fuel station that had been completely cleared out. The fuel station had all the familiar signs of a panic brought on by disaster. Bare shelves inside the store, broken windows, abandoned cars. Hastily written cardboard signs that read, ‘No Fuel’.

We were just about to move on, when Kenji found a luxury SUV parked around the back of the store.

The driver’s door was wide open. The key was in the ignition. The left turn signal was flashing on and off. It looked like whoever had been driving it, had only just left.

We decided to wait around to see if anyone returned. But by late afternoon, when the sun began to set, it was obvious no one was coming back.

It was a nice SUV. It had leather seats, cruise control. It even had DVD players and TV screens built into the back of the seats. And for a minute it looked like we would be able to drive to Daniel’s camp in luxurious air conditioned comfort. But we had only driven about a hundred miles down the road when the car just died on us. Weird thing was, the tank was practically full.

The damn thing just stopped working.

The guys, Daniel, Jack and Kenji popped the hood and had a look at the engine. Maria and I had a look as well. Not that we knew anything about cars. I was hoping to see a giant ‘on/off’ switch. “Oh, there’s the problem. It was turned off.”

But unfortunately there was no switch. There wasn’t even any smoke or steam.

Daniel shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense.”

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Jack said. “These luxury SUV’s aren’t designed to last in the outback.”

“If you knew this was a bad idea why didn’t you say anything before?” Maria replied.

Daniel tried the key in the ignition one more time. But there was no sign of life. It was then he noticed the display monitor on his NBC suit was dead as well. I had given my suit to Maria, because we figured she was more valuable than me. She needed the protection of the suit more than anyone. I told her to check the display panel located near her left wrist. She said it was out. Blank. She held up her wrist and showed me.

No more cloaking device. No more GPS. We were now travelling blind.

Kenji looked to the sky, turning slowly in a circle. He studied each section of blue sky extremely carefully.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“A mushroom cloud.”

“Huh?”

“A mushroom cloud. From an explosion.”

“Like a bomb blast?”

“Yeah.”

“You think the car broke down because of a nuclear EMP?” Daniel said.

“It would make sense.”

“Nuclear EMP?” Jack asked. “What’s that?”

“When a nuclear bomb is detonated, it produces an electromagnetic pulse,” Kenji answered. “Knocks out all electronic devices in the area.”

Jack suddenly looked very worried. He put his hands up to his eyes and scanned the horizon for any signs of a nuclear explosion.

“Do you think that’s the reason the car stopped working?” I asked.

Kenji shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I can’t see any evidence of a mushroom cloud. Maybe Jack was right. Maybe luxury SUV’s aren’t designed to last in the outback.”

We didn’t know it at the time, but this was just the beginning of our troubles.

In two days’ time we would run out of food.

A day after that we would run out of water.

We would be forced to raid a town crawling with infected.

Yep. Things were going from bad to worse in a real hurry.