Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 4): April (8 page)

I told him that no matter how many of his 'friends' come to rescue him, there was no way I was letting him take The School.  “Mate, I don't want your piece of shit school.  I've got a place, somewhere near here.  Much better than this shithole!”  He smiled.  Half of his face smiled, at least.  The rest grimaced, as a dribble of drool slipped between paralysed portions of his lips.  “We were heading that way anyway, you guys are in our way.  We figured you'd be easy pickings, but nooo... you had to make things difficult, didn't you?”

The Disciple stalked around silently in a large circle.  Apocalypse Girl motioned that we should go, but I knew him, I knew he wasn't finished.  “Right, I know what to do now.”  He said, hobbling towards me to peer into my eyes.  “I will spare The School, The Mech-Techs, even your beloved Colonel and her army.”  His good eye burned.  “On one condition.  You have to leave.  Find somewhere else to make trouble.  Or we're gonna attack with an army of ten thousand and obliterate you all.”  The Disciple turned around, hobbling off into a side street and almost disappearing into the snow after moving a matter of metres.

evening

“But you can't go!  We need you guys here!”  The Twin cried out when we told her.  I told them that I would just go on my own, he hadn't said anything about anyone else but me.  Apocalypse Girl kicked me in the shin from across the table for that one.  I glared at her, but she was right.  She and I are a team, we have been since the beginning.  We were having a victory dinner party that The Principal had arranged for us that was apparently doubling as a farewell dinner.

The Principal seemed genuinely sorry to see us have to leave, but he wasn't about to waste any tears on us, after all he had a community to lead and if we were a threat to their safety by staying, then we had to leave.  Many of the friends we had made were considering coming along with us, Guide in particular.  Viking and Valkyrie wanted to join us as well.  Which meant that Cyclops was coming, of course.  Redbeard was truly torn, as he wanted to come with us but Firecracker did not.  I told him to stay.  To compound matters, though, Firecracker told him to go.  In the end, with Apocalypse Girl whispering loudly in his ear “
She means she wants you to stay you idiot!
” Redbeard chose to remain behind.  Archer, on the other hand, was eager to get back on the road again.  He had an aversion to remaining in any one place for too long.  Sister looked from face to face before shrugging, saying that she needed to pack a few things, were we leaving first thing in the morning?

We organised a radio frequency with which to keep in touch with people here, as we planned on taking The Nightmare, though it would be a little cramped with eight people in it, and discussed amongst ourselves a likely location for The Kid to have found himself.  Archer pulled out a map of the area that he had sketched up, showing all of the landmarks that we had encountered on our journey.  The older man had been the last to see him, that had been before the destruction of The Think Tank, and he had marked the approximate location.  The Kid had grown up on a commune, which was also marked clearly, far to the west.  It was unlikely that he would return there, but it was certainly possible.  My eye kept returning to what looked like a sword in a stone.  Asking Archer what that was, he smiled, shook his head and said “You should know, mate!” then reached behind me to tap my sword's hilt.  “That old abandoned town we found, Melrose Park, or whatever it was called.”  The location of the crashed helicopter was marked clearly as well next to a crater that I assume signified the ruins of The Think Tank.

I asked for people's opinions, the newcomers simply shrugging, not knowing the score all that well.  Archer suggested that the most likely place was the commune, so we should head there first.  Besides, he had left something behind when we had been forced out, he told us.  Something that might prove useful.  Sister simply shrugged and said that anywhere we go is fine with her.  Apocalypse Girl nodded, lost in her own thoughts momentarily, before saying in an ironic tone, “Let's head west, then!”

April 16
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

The Disciple had graciously given us until dusk today to leave, but we had intended to be away in The Nightmare long before noon, if possible.  The Colonel would be on the move later this afternoon with the majority of her forces as well, though they were heading in a different direction.  She had been forced to negotiate with one of The Disciple's underlings, who had promised to leave her army and the area surrounding The School alone, provided The Schoolfolk stick to their area and the army stick to killing the Dead.

The former city of Melbourne had been neatly divided up the middle, those on the South Side, The Schoolfolk and Mech-Techs, balanced by The Disciple's Followers and his mysterious allies from up north occupying the North End.  With an enormous section of the city destroyed by the masses of Dead that had rushed out from Melbourne to investigate the loud noises and interesting odours being created by the war between The Think Tank and The Family lying in between.

True to their word, The Followers had retreated northwards, taking up residence in the buildings nearest the swathe of devastation that remained intact.  The Colonel swore a lot, more than usual this morning, but she made ready to leave.  She still planned to seek out other survivor groups, thinking that the island state of Tasmania, being relatively isolated from the mainland, would be an ideal place to begin her search.  From there she would return to the mainland then head west along the coast until reaching Adelaide.  After that she was torn.  To the west lay the city of Perth, but between those two former population centres was a vast expanse of nothingness.  The other option was to head north.

The Soldier was not a happy man this morning.  He had discovered that although his Colonel respected and admired his dedication he was
not
to join her in her search.  She had ordered him to remain behind at the furniture shop with a group of about twenty men, giving The Schoolfolk a little more firepower should The Followers renege on their arrangement.  He saw the sense in it, knew that he was the best man for the job, but hated the fact that he would be left behind.

noon

Our friends had come out to the furniture shop to bid us farewell, Doctor and Nurse giving us a bundle of medical supplies of various flavours, mostly bandages, some painkillers as well.  Many of The Mech-Techs were there, as well, Stutter and Nutter among them.  The former was trying to talk, the latter simply had a dejected expression.  Apparently we would find what we sought “In a place of death and destruction” but we would not know it until it was almost too late.  The Colonel had furnished us with a reasonable amount of spare ammunition, as she had more than enough guns and bullets, her problem was fast becoming a lack of manpower to use said weaponry.  The Principal had given us more than enough food and water than we had hoped for, enough for a few weeks, at least.

There was much hugging, shaking of hands, laughter, tears, all of that.  The Twin wanted to come with us, but Traveller and Daughter were her family now, she had to look after the two of them.  Several of Guide's friends attempted to talk the man out of coming with us, but he had made up his mind.  None of Viking's men questioned their mighty leader,  though some expressed a desire to come along with us.

Sister, at the wheel of The Nightmare, honked the horn in an attempt to hurry us up, and the rest of us piled on inside.  She reversed us out from the street the furniture shop occupied, then turned to smile at Apocalypse Girl and I, sitting up front with her.  “Here we go again, huh?”

evening

Sister found the highway easily enough, but our progress was slow, impeded by blockades, chokepoints and overturned vehicles.  Many of these could be driven around, in time, but some of course needed some of us to get out of The Nightmare and fucking push.  I was instantly grateful that Viking and his hulking one-eyed companion had come along.  With Archer's arm in bad shape it would have likely been Apocalypse Girl and I pushing together out there without them.

In any event, we had come in the end, towards dusk, to what appeared to be a small town, centred around a motel, that had a take-away chicken shop across the road from it.  There was also a service station next to the chicken shop and a couple of houses on either side of the road.  And a pub, of course.  That was all.  Nothing unusual about that  The same scene no doubt existed in thousands of other tiny little towns scattered all about this vast country.  There was something different about this place, however.  Something that would have made little difference at all several months ago, but now...

The lights were on.  From the chicken shop to the houses to the service station to the pub.  All the lights were on.  We were noticed, obviously, as The Nightmare is hardly an inconspicuous vehicle and we had to use the headlights to see where the fuck we were going, and somebody came out of the pub, got into a car that had been parked out front, and drove out to greet us.

“G'day!  Haven't seen anyone Living in a while!  Come on in, grab a beer with us, stay the night!”  The man told us after Valkyrie opened up the side door, allowing him entry.  “We've got food, booze, smokes, beds, hot water and best of all,
no flaming Dead fuckers!
”

April 17
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Last night was the best night's sleep I have had in a long time.  Apocalypse Girl stirred as I arose, lifting up her head, shaking it slightly, reached out and pulled me back into bed.  The second time I arose she was more lenient, and I was able to go downstairs to the front bar, and breakfast.  Porridge, warm and thick, with plenty of honey.  Normally not my thing, but now...

Barkeep, who had come out to greet The Nightmare last night, started off with the questions, though thankfully he waited until
after
we had had a good night's sleep.  First off was, naturally enough, where had we come from.  Apocalypse Girl and I answered with “Adelaide” at the exact moment Viking, Cyclops and Sister said “Melbourne” which confused him a little.  Valkyrie's “Sweden” threw him, though.  Archer smiled, wincing in pain as he did so.  He then explained that we were already a mixed mob, and they would likely see many more as the year went on.

For once, I was able to just listen as Archer told our tale, from the moment a blood-soaked pair of refugees arrived at the commune that was once his sometime home to the exploding bus that had separated us.  Apocalypse Girl took over at that point, describing the first helicopter ride to The Think Tank and the expedition to Melbourne to rescue Sister, who continued the tale.  She told of the battles with The Family, the destruction of The Think Tank and all the rest, leading up to our return from Canberra with the army, the way The Colonel had taken charge of the situation.  Viking finished off the story with the events of the last couple of days.

When the tale was over, Barkeep blew out a sigh.  “That was a doozy.  Bad enough that the Dead are around eating people, why the hell do they need to fuck each other over like that?”  I asked him how his town had fared so well when the rest of the world had gone to shit.  He smiled, teeth a brilliant white against the black of his beard.  “Well now, funny you should ask that.  To begin with, we were much the same as most other towns like this one, just a few Dead, mainly locals who Died in accidents, or of old age.  Then, around the second or third week of January, when the weather got colder, we began to see more and more of them.”  He turned to thank his wife, who had brought out coffee for everybody, apologising for the lack of real milk, saying that they had been on the powdered crap for about a week now.

When she was done, he continued.  “We were just about at our wits' end when the snow first started to fall, but then, one day, this old Aboriginal fella just wanders on in to town, about a week into February.  We had just finished fighting off a bunch of Dead that had been attracted by the noise of our generators, and this guy just comes on up, saying that for a meal, a couple of beers and a bed for the night he would protect our town from the Dead.  I laughed, thinking he was mad, especially so 'cause he was standing there, in the snow, totally barefoot.  Anyway, he smiled at me, told me that he could make it so no Dead ever want to come near this place again.  Now, mind you, I'm not one to believe in this sort of thing, normally, but he stands in the centre of town, starts chanting for a while, then turns to me telling me the job was done.  Anyway, the next morning the old fella was gone, vanished.  He was right though, we've had no trouble with Dead at all since then, even people who die in town stay dead.”

noon

The whole story was unbelievable, or so I thought at first.  Archer shrugged, saying that he had seen plenty of weird shit in his day, and that the reality of the Dead walking only served to solidify that in his mind.  He was enjoying the day of rest, but we had all agreed that tomorrow morning we move on.  The Smart Couple wanted us to find The Kid, after all.  I had my doubts that they would be able to do anything much with a tissue sample from him, but if anybody could do something it was those two.

I took advantage of the relative light of day to take a bit of a stroll.  Apocalypse Girl, as ever, at my side I walked out to the road, covered now in a thin layer of grey.  Looking to the west I saw nothing, to the east was a solitary Dead, standing in the middle of the road.  It seemed completely oblivious to our approach, until we drew near at least, then it snarled at us, gnashing teeth, but as soon as it tried to take a step towards us, some barrier repelled it.  When we fell back a few steps it lost interest in us completely, turning to a sound faintly heard in the distance before wandering away.  Apocalypse Girl shared my own astonishment, and we returned to the pub.  Barkeep knew precisely what we had been up to just from the expression on our faces.  He had seen it often enough on others, no doubt.