Volume I - Episode 44 Where: Central Victoria, Australia When: 7 days after E-Day, 1:46 pm Kimberly Walker's Z3 tore along the highway a hundred kilometres north of Melbourne. Country music blasted from its open windows. "Scars!" the girls sang at the top of their lungs. "Fadin' with time. You got yours, I got mine!" "Yeeehah!!!!" Kim screamed. The girls burst into laughter. "Babe," Jessica said. "This has to be, without a doubt, the daggiest music we could possibly be listening to right now." "It's your CD!" Kim said. "I know!" Jessica replied, snorting laughter. "But hey, I'm a country girl - it's in my blood. And we're in the country. And we're heading even further into the country. So it would just be wrong to listen to anything but country music. Right?" "Right!" The conversation stopped long enough to sing the next chorus, this time even louder than before. "It's just as well everybody's gone," Jessica said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Or I'd be dying of embarrassment right now." "Don't worry, babe," Kim said. "I love your stupid daggy country music! I'm having the best time." "Me too, Kimmy." Jessica took Kim's hand and kissed it. They sang the final chorus of the song, hand-in-hand. There was a loud beep as the GPS on the dashboard cleared its electronic throat. "In eight hundred metres, turn right." "Not far to go now," Jessica said, trying to sound calm. But the two girls had literally been through the end of the world together; Kim could read her like a book. Kim squeezed her hand. "Are you going to be okay, babe?" "It's all good," Jessica lied. Kim flinched mentally. She knew that particular line; she knew it very well. For Jessica, "It's all good", meant quite the opposite. It meant her world was falling apart. It meant she was hanging on by a fingernail. "Come on, Jess. We don't have to do this. There's heaps of other farms around here. We could just..." "No," Jessica said firmly. "Don't slow down. Keep going. My step-dad..." she swallowed. "My step-dad was a violent, abusive prick...but I know his place. I know where he keeps...where he kept everything. If we go to another farm, we'll be spending the rest of the day searching. We can be in and out of my step-dad's place in twenty minutes. Besides which, he's gone now. Everybody's gone." Jessica drifted off into silence, staring deep into the countryside, her mind a kaleidoscope of horrific memories and unwanted flashbacks. Scars. Fadin' with time. You got yours, I got mine. Jessica rubbed her stomach absent-mindedly. First published: Monday, 28 March 2011 Credits: Lorena by Rhiannon Melia Hair by 3Dream Leather Jacket Set by billy-t Jeanz by the3dwizard FR-Venus by Freja Grace Lion Hair by Quarker Sportbaby 2 by Hongyu Bad Attitude by Lady Littlefox The Hitchhiker by mytilus Background photography by me Characters rendered in Poser Pro Composited in Photoshop CS5 Extended