Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 2): February (3 page)

“Probably not, no...”  I replied.

“There's got to be a cure somewhere,”  The Colonel said, with almost believable certainty.  “I just know it.  A vaccine at least.  We just need to get to Canberra, they'll know something there.”

“How do you go about curing the Dead going around eating people?”  The Twin enquired.

A noise, once common and familiar, now utterly alien, shattered the quiet of our reverie.  Apocalypse Girl's mobile phone rang once more.  She pushed the speaker button.

“This is an automated announcement.  Request all Living respond.  Text replies to this number to receive further instructions.  Message repeats...  This is an automated announcement...”  Apocalypse Girl hung up at that point.

We looked around at one another, nobody entirely sure how we wanted to respond, or even if we wanted to respond, to this new development.

“Fuck it.”  Apocalypse Girl said, abruptly.  She jabbed her phone a few times with one finger, then we waited.  A few minutes later, her phone jangled signifying the first newly delivered text message in a month, at least.

She showed the phone to me, the message was a short one. 
Hold position.  We have your GPS location.  Help will come within 24 hours.  Remain calm.

February 5th Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Dawn, or what passed for it these days, came and went.  The snow began to fall once more, and we debated whether to trust the mysterious message that had appeared on Apocalypse Girl's phone or not.  She had tried to regain contact with whoever it was on the other end, but they didn't reply.  Whether their silence meant that they were busy, or possibly Dead by this time, we had no way of knowing.  In any eventuality, the general consensus was that waiting around for some mystery person to come along and save us was probably going to be a gigantic waste of time.

On the other hand, we were all still quite knackered from yesterday's efforts pushing the Ute.  Any excuse to rest a day, relax our tired, sore muscles, was welcome in my mind.  The Colonel on the other hand, did not like the fact that we were no longer in motion.  Eventually, we agreed that we would stay put for this one day, and if they had not decided to show up by that time, we would continue onwards.

mid-morning

I was off the side of the road, attending to my bladder, when the call came from Apocalypse Girl to gather around the Ute.  The others were already milling around her when I arrived, and I saw that she had received a fresh message.  This one read;
Massive horde of Dead approaching from east.  Stay put.  Help coming soon.
  We looked at one another.  Another jangle of Apocalypse Girl's phone and a photo appeared, showing a satellite image of our immediate area, our Ute easily visible, in fact I could even see myself frozen forever in the act of urinating, we all could.  We could also see, with perfect clarity, the horde of easily several score Dead that approached our position.  Perhaps a hundred, maybe more than that.  The Twin jumped up on the roof of the Ute, and sure enough spotted movement in the snow on the horizon.

We took our time checking our weapons, making sure they were in good working order.  My katana I kept loose in its sheath, readying instead my .45, as most of us did, the exception being The Twin, who preferred her bow.  She had about a dozen arrows remaining, but we all knew they would count, probably far better than most of our bullets.  The Colonel ordered us into a skirmish line, with The Twin remaining on the roof, and we awaited our fate.

noon

The Dead took a couple of hours to get close enough to engage, the ice on the road hampering their movements in a spectacularly amusing display of slipping, sliding and lusting for our flesh.  The Twin put an arrow through the skull of the leading Dead, as soon as it was in effective range, following that up with a second shaft through the next one, then a third.  By this time the Dead realised they were under attack, which meant the certainty of food.

They didn't exactly move any faster, but the way they surged forwards relentlessly the moment they sensed a meal, almost seemed as though they were charging in at full speed.  The inevitability of their assault had me doubting whether we could survive much longer.  The accuracy of The Twin's arrows, on the other hand, erased these doubts fairly swiftly.  Every shaft found a Dead head, some passing through to slay a second victim, but she ran out of arrows far too quickly.  She caressed her bow one last time, then dropped it, pulling out her own .45 pistol and joining our defensive line.

The Dead were not being very cooperative, as they kept falling over one another on the icy road, rendering our first volley of fire almost totally ineffective.  The Colonel shouted that we needed to keep calm, squeeze the trigger, and if necessary, wait until the very last second before firing.  Better to not waste ammo.  Hearing became almost impossible as we opened up on the encroaching Dead.  Dead heads split open, exploded, eyes popped out.  Bullets flew into Dead flesh tearing the rotting meat apart as easily as if it were soggy paper.  Wave after wave of Dead fell, dead once more, yet the tide seemed endless, the oncoming horde walking or falling over their dead to reach our tasty flesh.  A massive gale arose from somewhere behind us, buffeting us, and the Dead as well.  We staggered and nearly fell, the Dead faring worse than that.  Those nearest us we shot dead in the head, and The Colonel, looking around, grabbed my shoulder and pointed behind us, and up.

I looked up just in time to see the helicopter's heavy machine gun open fire, tearing into the Dead ranks, rendering most of them into a fine reddish brown mist.  Junior and The Twin were already well on their way up the rope ladder that had been extended for us, with Apocalypse Girl struggling to get on with her injured arm.  I jumped up onto the bonnet of the Ute, helping her up to Junior, who assisted her onto the chopper.  I scrabbled up the ladder next, The Colonel following as swiftly as humanly possible.

Junior and another, unknown, bespectacled man helped us into the helicopter, and I lay there, breathing deeply, trying to calm the fuck down.  Adrenaline flowed through me, slowly abating.  I don't think I'll ever get used to these fights for our lives.  The Dead had a way of unnerving a person, as well.  When the bandits had attacked the commune, there had been fear and adrenaline, sure, but the Dead spawned revulsion as well as terror.  Even when our bus had been shot at, wounding Apocalypse Girl in the process, had been different.  The Living wanted our shit, maybe wanted to kill us.  The Dead simply wanted to eat us.  Therein lay the difference, I think.

When I had calmed myself sufficiently, I sat up, and thanked the new guy with a dual thumbs up and a big grin.  He blushed, and looked away, unable to meet my eyes for the rest of our aerial journey.

mid-afternoon

About two hours flight to the north, we finally touched down on a small helipad on the roof of a building in a compound that was surrounded by a double row of chain-link fences.  Outside of these fences, to the north and west lay a forest, grey and gloomy with our new season.  To the south, a vast lake from which came pipes leading to a small building inside the fences.  The east, however, along which direction lay the roadway up to this compound, winding up a path cut into the earth, was populated by the Dead.  Hundreds of Dead, thousands of them.  More Dead than I had yet seen together at any one place and time.  Maybe more Dead than I had seen since this had started.

The engine turned off, our bespectacled saviour turned to me saying, “I can understand your apprehension, truly.  However, we are perfectly safe in this enclosure, trust me.  We have a large store of food available that we are happy to share, and plenty of fresh water.”  He led us from the helipad down to the ground, and into the main building, while the helicopter pilot attended to refueling and rearming.  “This place was designed to hold and support several hundred individuals, in the event of a global catastrophe.  My colleagues and I were basically the nightwatchmen, in a sense.  Hired to stay here looking after the place in case Armageddon should ever occur, which we were assured was hardly likely.  Of course, we had barely begun to settle in here when all of this...whatever it is with the Dead started happening.  So, we were waiting for all the bigwigs to arrive, which of course they never did, so my partner and I devised a cunning scheme to contact every mobile phone in the country.  Your group is the only one we have actually brought here thus far, but our pilot is heading off to check out another one now.  We had to decide quickly with you, because of the Dead that were heading to your position.”  He led us into a corridor off of which were individual guest suites.  “Feel free to make full use of all available facilities, that is what they're there for.  You are welcome to share suites if you wish, but there are more than enough for each of you to have your own.  I or my colleague will return around dinner time.”  With that, he simply left.

The very first thing we all did was bolt for our own separate suites, because the mere notion of a hot shower at the very least had me in goosebumps.  The water felt so fucking amazing after so long without...I had nearly forgotten what a shower even felt like.  When I looked at myself in the mirror afterwards, however, I barely recognised myself.  My hair was so severely matted with grime and bits of the Dead that I had little option but to shave it off completely, and my new beard followed suit in short order.  The fresh air on my bare scalp and skin felt cool and refreshing, and I found a bathrobe with which to cover myself while my own clothes received the washing they so badly needed.

evening

True to his word, the incredibly talkative gentleman returned, and led us to the dining hall, which seemed enormous.  The only other person present was a young woman in a lab coat, sitting at a heavily food-laden table.  She stood to greet us as we approached, smiling shyly and saying nothing.  As we ate our first real meal since the apocalypse began, we told our tale.  They listened with rapt attention, and when it came time to tell their tale, they did so.

Originally, the two of them had been part of a contingent of seven sent to this facility to make sure it was ready for use, though they had been assured it wasn't ever going to be.  All they had to do was go over the power and security systems, make sure everything was working, basically.  When the senior member of their team had died of a heart attack on the 3rd of January they had simply placed him in the morgue, and decided that the reason they couldn't get in touch with their superiors was simply that they were being ignored, being reasonably low on the food-chain of government officials.  Turned out their superiors were probably being eaten at that stage, if they hadn't been already.

Naturally they had heard, and summarily dismissed, the same news reports Apocalypse Girl and I had heard that first night, and on the morning of the 5th one of the others in their group heard a strange sound coming from the morgue.  Of course, it was the reanimated body of their team leader, and the other one had been bitten.  It all went downhill from there.  The chopper pilot had happened by that day, looking for anybody at all that might possibly be alive, and had saved the two remaining from a grisly death.  Between the three of them they devised their plan to contact every mobile in the country, finding any and every survivor they could reach.  It took a long time to gather all the necessary supplies, but eventually they managed it.  The two scientists had penetrated deep into the facility, and had discovered stores of food, and an armoury full to the brim with weapons as well, including a heavy machine gun that they had rigged to the chopper.  The Colonel's ears certainly pricked up at the mention of weaponry.  I asked the Smart Couple if we could have a look at the armoury in the morning, to which Smart Guy replied that of course we could.  He told us we could take whatever we needed from there, there was plenty to choose from.  All sorts, not just guns either, Smart Girl told us, the first words out of her mouth so far.  She looked genuinely surprised that she had even spoken.

Smart Guy showed us where the medical wing of the facility was after dinner, and The Twin cleaned and changed Apocalypse Girl's bandage once again.  The wound was looking much better now, and she was regaining movement in her arm, though slowly.  I asked Smart Guy what other lovely little surprises this place contained, to which he responded with a wide grin, saying “Everything!”  Though he would say no more on the subject.  He then pointed us back in the direction of our suites before heading in the direction of one of the labs.

February 6th Year 1 A.Z.

morning

I hadn't slept that well in my entire life, I don't think.  The small town we had found before the snow had begun to fall was one thing, there had been beds there but there had been no real security.  This place was, if nothing else, totally secure.  The Dead would never breach these walls.  Unless someone did something monumentally stupid, or insane, that was.  Smart Girl's voice over the intercom informed us that breakfast was ready in the dining hall.  The Colonel was already present, naturally, poring over floor plans and blueprints of the facility that she had presumably had Smart Guy dig up for her.