Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 4): April (13 page)
noon
This place, Melrose Park, once again. It has a strange, eerie feel to it. There were no Dead here, none at all. Not even any trace of them. Oddly enough, there was no snow either. Not that there wasn't any Cold, far from it, the place was fucking freezing, but it seemed as though it never snowed here. The six of us felt safer together as we explored the town. Not a building stood whole, mainly due to neglect though, as opposed to the devastation that a large enough horde of Dead will leave.
We walked down the main road through town, finding the house where I had discovered my blade, thinking that maybe there might be something else there. It seemed unlikely that we were going to find The Kid here. We rounded the corner of the house, entering the back yard to see the cairn of stones still sitting there. Sitting atop the cairn, however, right where my katana had been, was our objective. The Kid sat, cross-legged, meditating. His eyes, glazed with Death yet still clear and intelligent, snapped open when I drew near. “I've been waiting for you guys. Been dreaming about you a lot.” He unfolded himself and stood to his full height.
Towering over me now, nearing perhaps eight feet in height, The Kid had clearly adapted to his condition. His fingernails had turned into talons, clawed and black. His torso had lengthened considerably and he now had no hair to speak of. His skin was pale and clammy to the touch, and he clearly didn't need to breathe, save to draw breath to speak. Viking and Valkyrie were disconcerted, to say the least, but Sister walked up to him.
The Kid looked down on her, sniffed the air. “I knew your brother. He was a Copper, yeah?” She replied that he had been. “You smell like him, kinda. Your meat smells the same, I mean.” She took a careful step back from him. “Oh, yeah, don't worry about me. I don't bite. Unless you deserve it, hey?” That last he directed towards me with a wry grin. He then shrunk himself, folded himself up somehow, to a more reasonable height. “Better?”
evening
The Kid was a gracious host, though he of course could offer nothing in the way of food or drink. He did, however, tell me privately that he had chosen this place to wait for us for two main reasons. One being that I had found my sword here, the other being that he had far more control here. I asked him what he meant by that, he asked if I remembered him telling me about once, during a massive storm, he had lost himself, wandering with a horde of Dead. That sort of control.
“I know why you need me, it's alright. I understand, probably better than you do.” He told me. I asked him how he knew of such things, he simply smiled, showing teeth that had become fangs.
April 30
Year 1 A.Z.
morning
We made off fairly quickly once we awoke, The Kid agreeing to come with us. Viking and Valkyrie were clearly uncomfortable around him, as was Sister, but those of us that knew him, knew he could be trusted. Apocalypse Girl pulled out her phone to send a message to The Smart Couple only to discover that the damned thing had died overnight. Plugging it into the charger in the mini-bus she smiled at me, saying that now, once we get The Kid to those two, we can finally start looking for somewhere just for us.
We drove following the directions that we had been given for The Facility, knowing that it should only be a matter of days, depending on road conditions and weather, before we are safely below ground in another secure location just like The Think Tank.
Archer was thoughtful this morning, telling me that he wasn't altogether certain that taking The Kid to The Facility was a wonderful idea. I put forward the suggestion that the reason The Smart Couple wanted him was to develop some kind of cure, or at least treatment for this virus. That alone made it worthwhile, didn't it? “I suppose you're right, but sometimes it's not about the end result. How you get there can be just as important.”
noon
Apocalypse Girl's phone was blinking, indicating it was fully charged. She pulled it down from the dashboard and started punching a message to The Smart Couple.
Found him, on way to facility now
it read, though they seemed to not want to respond in a hurry. In any case, we continued our journey, heading to the north, up into the mountains. There were relatively few abandoned vehicles on the roads up here, at least, that was something. It made negotiating these fucking winding mountain roads possible, at the very least.
I looked back over the last few months, wondering how and why I had managed to survive. I certainly think that had I just been out for myself that I wouldn't have gotten far, maybe not even out of the hotel. Apocalypse Girl and the trust we had built was a large part of it, that is a sure thing. Finding other like-minded survivors had also helped immensely. Even my sword, finding that was a stroke of luck to be sure.
Fucking hell! Viking drove over something nasty in the road, no fucking idea what, but now we have a fucking pair of flat tyres. There seems to be a driveway nearby, probably not going to be worthwhile following up on, but Apocalypse Girl and Sister and I are going to check it out. Viking and Valkyrie are looking for something that might fit from any other nearby vehicles. We need food, we're running low on supplies. Even the water we found when we took the truck from the barracks in Adelaide was running out. With Archer keeping The Kid company in the mini-bus, which seemed far too small to contain our huge friend.
evening
A fairly large house, clearly a family home judging from the rusting swing in the back yard and dead dog lying by the back door, lay at the top of the driveway. At the very least we would have somewhere to sleep overnight. Sister knocked on the front door, and to my surprise I found myself expecting somebody to answer. Instead, she tried the knob and it opened easily. A quick sweep of the house revealed that the occupants were no longer there, and hadn't been for many months. Leaving the two girls searching through cupboards for supplies I went to tell the others where we would be.
Finding that Apocalypse Girl's phone had a message waiting on it, I reached for it. It jangled once more as I picked it up. The first message read
About time! Been counting on that tissue sample! When can we expect you?
But the second message, slightly contradictory to the others, read;
Have only just been able to get a message out unobserved. Situation here is critical. Need sample, yes, but experiments are being done on Living people, trying to recreate what happened to your friend. Not us, others. Had to tell you, can't just let you walk into this place without warning.
We filed on up to the house to discover that the girls had in fact found a portable camping stove and were busily cooking up the contents of the cans that they had found. I told everyone about the last two messages. Viking just shook his head, saying that fucking mad scientists will be the end of this world. Apocalypse Girl said that she was pretty certain they already had been. The message
when can we expect you guys?
Was repeated with the next jangle a few moments later.
If they were experimenting with trying to recreate what had happened with The Kid, we had to put a stop to it. It was both miracle and curse that he had pulled through as he had, and there was no good reason to recreate that, even in the name of finding a cure.
Apocalypse Girl sent a message to The Smart Couple saying
will be there in a matter of days. Coming to help. Hang in there.
To me she said “Why is nothing ever fucking simple?”
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