Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 4): April (3 page)

Once we were free, on the open road, Apocalypse Girl pulled The Nightmare over to the shoulder of the road.  She looked into my eyes and asked me “What the fuck are we going to do now?”  Our escort had halted alongside us, assuming we had stopped for a meal-break, and set up a brief camp while I tried to think.

A knock came at the side door of the combi-attachment, and Redbeard slid it open to reveal a young soldier that had been a part of the patrol that had slaughtered the Dead using our 'new' tactics the other day, one of those that had come to our rescue against the seemingly unending horde that had come from the direction of Sydney.  He held forth a small baggie of a green combustible substance that I had not thought to see again, at least not in this lifetime.

The soldiers shared the last of their weed with us, and we shared the last of Viking's homebrew with them.  It was not exactly a party, but we celebrated temporary freedom from the insanity that General Fuckwit was spreading throughout the camp.

An hour and a half later, we hit the road again, with a lovely glow warming us that we hadn't expected, and a declaration of friendship from the troops following us.  The Colonel had given a rousing speech after lunch, telling them that their leadership left a lot to be desired, saying that The Mech-Techs were our friends, that The Followers were the enemy, and that General Fuckwit was … well, a fuckwit.

evening

Apocalypse Girl's phone jangled, The Smart Couple asking if we had seen any sign of The Kid.  They needed at the very least a tissue sample from him in order to study the Dead infection in more detail, but considering the delay caused by forced conscription into the army, we had not the time to go off searching for somebody that might be dead, Dead or at the very least might not have any memories of being a Living human.  I punched in a reply telling them that we had experienced a major delay, and we would get back to them about it when we could.

We travelled for an hour past full darkness, the spotlights on top of The Nightmare allowing us to see the road ahead, though not in much detail, and when we stopped for the night, the young soldier came knocking once more.  He apologised for not having anything with him to share, but asked if there was anything we needed, his eyes finding their way to where Sister sat far more often than any of the rest of us.  The Colonel told him no, sending him on his way, and we prepared for sleep.

April 6
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Apocalypse Girl snored away contentedly as The Colonel drove us down the road once more heading towards Melbourne.  We drove straight through the first two towns we saw, the second one of which had been completely gutted by flames, clearly a while ago now.  The first one had been quite obviously ransacked already, all the doors flung wide where they were still attached to their hinges.

The third town, however, was boarded up to buggery and back again, with nothing but a dozen or so Dead wandering around the snow-shrouded streets.  The Colonel ordered a halt, and before the engines had been turned off I was out in the snow, swinging away with my katana.  Half of the Dead were dead by the time I registered Apocalypse Girl's presence beside me, and the rest followed in short order.

The soldiers worked with military precision to enter and secure each house in turn before returning to report that they were all empty.  Apart from one, which was clearly where everybody had holed up, that was, every building was clear.  The last house explored was next to the town church, which was also boarded up heavily.  The Colonel told us, when one of the troops wondered why board up when you're running away, that they had planned on returning, and had boarded up only to preserve their possessions.

We were going to leave well enough, and the church, alone when Sister heard a scratching sound from within, and the soldier who had been eyeing her off kicked the double doors in, turning around to proudly show off as several rotting arms reached out from within to drag him into the dark depths.  Blood sprayed onto the doors as the young trooper died, screaming.

“HOLD STILL!”  The Colonel shouted as many of the rest of them were about to charge inside to avenge their comrade.  “Let them come to us...”

Minutes later the Dead were dead, the young soldier had risen and was put back down and The Colonel ordered a few grunts into the church to make sure there was nothing we missed.  They came out with the news that there was nothing inside worth staying here for, just a lot of dried blood everywhere.  The general consensus was that the residents of this town had holed up in the church either hoping for the intervention of some mythical deity, or just that the Dead would go away.  Clearly, however, they had not been screening everybody for bite marks, or else somebody had simply died inside.  Either way, the end result had been swift and certain.  And messy.

noon

We continued on our way, stopping a few times to clear traffic obstructions off of the road, and again to eat.  Sister was a little upset by what had happened at the church, but was not in the mood to talk about it.  The Colonel was also upset, and for a similar reason, though she was quite vocal in her accusations that General Fuckwit hadn't been adequately preparing his soldiers for the dangers present in post-apocalyptic Australia.

At one point, clearing away burned out vehicles, Apocalypse Girl noticed something and called me over to see.  She had found the tracks of a kangaroo in the snow, but either this roo was a freakishly well-endowed male, or else the thing had grown a secondary tail.  Either thought disturbed the living fuck out of me, to be honest.  We decided to keep it between the two of us, at least for now.  The rest of The Nightmare's crew had already seen the cows on the road, and the
thing
at the bottom of the cliff, on the road to Canberra, they didn't need to know about this one.  Yet.

evening

The CB was crackling with the noise of Viking trying  to make contact with us, telling us that Nutter had dreamed about us coming back within the next week, bringing death with us, or worse.  He naturally wanted to know what was up with that.  We had heard about Nutter's dreams while staying with The Mech-Techs briefly, apparently the ones he bothered to tell people about almost always came true.  This was something that had only manifested itself after the Dead began to rise, but Viking had learned early on to trust in the strange little man and his speech-impaired colleague, Stutter.  It had been the pair of them that had created The Nightmare, not for The Mech-Techs, but for us, knowing that we would need it.

The Colonel told him that we were on our way with orders to take out his group.  He didn't like that very much, as the loudly exploding expletives emanating from our radio testified.  Once he had calmed himself somewhat, The Colonel explained the situation.  Viking responded by telling us that he had been having a lot of trouble with The Followers lately, apparently they had ambushed one of Viking's patrols, killing the men and taking the three women for their own twisted desires.  His men had caught up to The Followers, but by then the women had already made short work of several of them, forcing them to kill them before they could have any fun.  Cyclops, who had been tracking The Followers, had finished off the rest of them painfully.

In any event, both groups had been in constant conflict ever since.  The Colonel mentioned that it was a good thing that we weren't relaying this to those in charge, because they would no doubt order us to simply slaughter everyone in sight.  I asked Viking if he had heard anything from The School since we left, he told us that he was in contact with them constantly since The Followers brazen attack, and they had also experienced more trouble with them.  Those of our companions that had chosen to stay behind had been instrumental in defending them, The Twin in particular outshining herself by leading patrols to rescue captured women.

Losses from both groups meant that they were seriously considering consolidating their forces, however, and with the news that we were heading towards them with a fucking army Viking was about to abandon his warehouses already.  The Colonel, brow furrowed in deep concentration, told him to hold his position, and if possible, find out where exactly the main force of The Followers were camped.  He told us that he would do this, and that he would get back to us tomorrow night with the info.

The six of us, the crew of The Nightmare, were prepared to do whatever it took to help out our friends.  The Colonel was wondering, as were we all, just how far we could push those out there, the soldiers sent along with us by General Fuckwit.  They were all good men, of this we were all sure, but if they weren't willing to stand with us we would probably have to kill them all.

April 7
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

The Colonel has chosen today to speak to the troops.  Apocalypse Girl was in the mounted turret, I was standing beside The Colonel in front of The Nightmare as she presented her side of the story to the men.  It was a tense situation from the very beginning, because it seemed that somehow General Practical had committed treason and been executed by firing squad first thing this morning.  The radio operator had not been clear on exactly what had happened, apparently nobody was.  The two generals had been in their shared office, and the elder had ordered the younger arrested and shot, that was all anybody knew.

After that, The Colonel had taken a deep breath, stood up and addressed the men.  She told them of her own command that had been overrun by a horde of Dead that had been following our group, how she had come to trust us in that time, and told of the other groups that we had encountered.  She told of The Abbot and Biker, and of The Family and the generosity that had led a once kind-hearted old lady to insanity and murder.  She told them of the trio of men that she had executed because they had been cooking and eating the Dead.

As she told our story, the rest of us got into positions where we could act if necessary.  The men were trained soldiers, and as such knew exactly what we were doing and lounged near cover and weaponry of their own.  The Colonel continued her tale, how when the majority of us were accepted by The Schoolfolk she had been shunned because she had a military background and for no other reason than that.  She also told of how, when she had been exiled, they had been decent enough to send a group to keep her company and make sure she was safe while she waited for the rest of us in the furniture shop just outside of their territory.

She also told of the group of bandits that had taken her and the other women from The School captive after slaughtering the men.  How Guide had taken the rest of us so swiftly after them to rescue them from their fate.  She then told of the audacity of Viking and his Mech-Techs, taking abandoned military supplies and using them for their own ends, who had demanded that she help them take a tank and teach them how to operate it in exchange for a vehicle so that we could reach Canberra.

When she had finished her tale, with what had occurred as soon as we had arrived at General Fuckwit's base, the patrols we were given and the soldiers that we had befriended, many of whom stood before us now.  She told them that our group were her friends, that she considered those at The School to be friends, The Mech-Techs she considered to be friends also.

She took two paces forward, arms outstretched.  “We have come to consider you as friends as well.  The Followers are nobody's friends.  Our friends have asked for our help, and we are going to help them.  I would rather help them with you helping us, however.  Are you with me?”  The bullet that I imagined flying through her skull never came.  Instead, one of the men stepped forward, saluting The Colonel and telling her that he and his men were now under her command.  Apparently the general consensus around the base was that the old man had lost his mind, but everyone was doing what he told them to out of habit and fear.  General Practical had hardly been the first officer that he had executed.

noon

We moved on after The Colonel's little speech.  The Soldier had asked, at one point after we had stopped for a quick lunch, why exactly she considered The Schoolfolk to be friends when The Principal had scorned her and had her thrown out, why she considered The Mech-Techs friends when they were clearly scavenging military equipment that, by rights, should belong to them.

The Colonel asked him why he had joined up with the army.  The Soldier told her that he had joined up to protect civilians from any and all threats, to defend his country and his way of life.  She nodded.  Then she said that was why she considered all of them to be her friends.  The School, The Mech-Techs, that was the closest thing to the way of life they had sworn to defend, the closest thing to a civilian population worth defending.  The Soldier looked into her eyes and told her that she was also the closest thing he had ever met to a leader worth following.  With that he saluted swiftly, and went to attend to his own men.

Apocalypse Girl needed to talk, it seemed, about her condition.  She had passed the stage of thinking that she might be pregnant to the stage of being absolutely certain.  She had found an unopened home pregnancy test, the kind where you wee on a stick, and she had indeed weed on that stick.  The stick told her that she was indeed pregnant, and now she was even more scared.  Terrified would be a better word.  Hell, I am too, to be honest.  Having never had the opportunity to have kids in the world before, I have never known how it felt to have an impending new life on your hands.  On the other hand, in this world we live in now, a baby was almost certainly a death sentence.  She was worried that we wouldn't be able to get to Doctor back at The School, horrified at the prospects of possibly having to give birth alone somewhere in the snow, Dead all around.  I just held her, not knowing what to say, what else I could do.