Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 2): February (7 page)

noon

Firecracker led the expedition outside, while Apocalypse Girl saw Doctor about her arm, consisting of The Twin, The Colonel, Redbeard and myself, as well as the three miners, all eight of us with assault rifles and grenades aplenty.  The plan was simple, really, we had two days, three at the absolute outside, in which to clear two kilometres of road of the Dead so that if any of the three incoming groups actually managed to make it as far as the compound they would have an easy time of it.  The Colonel suggested that we switch to single fire, as there were many times many Dead to deal with, and it was better to be certain of our shots.

Eight rounds fired, eight Dead fell dead.  Again, then again, then once more, and still yet again.  The Dead fell easily, yet for each we introduced to the idea of staying still while dead, it seemed as though several more took its place.  Every now and then, just for variety, one of us would lob a grenade into the mix, further down the line, sending Dead flying.  As we continued our slaughter, the snow began to fall once more, a little heavier this time, it seemed, carpeting the Dead with a thin layer of whitish grey.

We reloaded when it became necessary to do so, and continued our assault.  As they swarmed towards us, we needed to do no more than put them down when they drew near, and put them down we did.  The Dead died in droves, falling into heaps of stench-ridden, rotting carcasses.  Still they came, only to die at our hands, the barking of gunfire occasionally punctuated with an exploding grenade.  We went through nearly two hundred rounds each in this fashion, over the afternoon, before darkness fell.

evening

Apocalypse Girl told me, when we returned inside, that her arm was healing very nicely, according to Doctor, and that The Twins dressings had been more than adequate for the task.  She showed me the wound, still slightly swollen, red and angry looking, but mainly to show me that her arms range of motion was almost back to normal.  Nurse had, apparently, suggested that she begin lifting weights, but that seemed unlikely to happen.  Smart Girl, who had been passing at just that moment, suggested that we follow her into a disused part of the third floor, a hallway with a door at the far end which opened up into a small, yet very comprehensive gymnasium.

“We really do have everything we could ever need here, don't we?”  Apocalypse Girl asked me.  I told her that seemed to be the case.  She went further to say that after the next three groups arrive we could just lock up the top of the compound and wait it out down here if we wanted to.  I looked into her eyes and told her in no uncertain terms that at the very least we were going to try to find Coppers family, consisting of a mother and a sister and the sister's family.  Furthermore we should try and find out if anything or anyone survived in Canberra.  Any survivors we discovered we would bring back here, naturally, unless they decided they wanted to kill us first.

At dinner I suggested that, due to the sheer size of this facility, we should put some signs up around the place, since we had been here nearly a week we had barely explored a fraction of the floor we occupied.  This was met with general approval, The Children offering to do the work, exploring and sign-writing both, while the eight of us that had gone topside today went up once more on the morrow, for the slaughter of more Dead.

February 12th Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Once more we faced the horde of Dead at our gates, blasting them to pieces.  The only difference was that today we were starting much earlier.  More hours of relative daylight meant more dead Dead that couldn't threaten the Living that approached.  The snowfall was a little lighter than yesterday's, though the temperature was dropping.  So focused were we on slaying the Dead before us that we barely registered the approach of Pilot's helicopter until snow was being whipped up around us, rendering visibility almost impossible.

I bolted up to the helipad, eager to see my friend Junior once more, followed immediately by The Twin and The Colonel.  Firecracker and her miners continued the killing, though the sounds of gunfire and grenades was vastly overshadowed by the noise generated by the whirling rotors.  Slowly the blades powered down, the door opening and Junior sprung out, followed by Pilot, the pair of them grinning like idiots.

Pilot reported that of the four possibilities he had thought of, three had shown signs of having once had survivors, one group had moved out already, the other two showed no signs other than blood.  The fourth place he had suspected as a likely location was bare of the Living, but the Dead roamed in numbers great enough that they dared not risk a landing.  Then there had been two other locations they had to scout, that The Smart Couple had assured Pilot survivors still Lived.  They had been right on the money, one was an old army depot, know of by few, visited by fewer.  That had been overrun with bandits that had fired on the chopper as soon as they had gotten over their shock.

The second location, on the other hand, the surviving Living there were friendly, providing us with a radio frequency with which to keep in constant contact with them.  They had already taken to calling themselves The Facility, so Pilot, thinking of The Smart Couple, had given our radio callsign as The Think Tank.  The Facility, in the caldera of a long dormant volcano, far to the northwest, was already communicating via radio with two other locations, both of which were far out of range of our chopper.

noon

Junior joined us at the gate on our after lunch mission of slaughter, and despite the cold and the snow, before long we were sweating.  Pilot had gone, along with The Colonel, downstairs to confer with The Smart Couple, while the rest of us continued rendering death unto the Dead.  Just as I was getting supremely bored with the whole shooting Dead caper, Pilot came running up to me, asking if I wanted to go for a ride with him.  I most certainly did!  The Colonel was joining us, waiting at the helipad already, our mission, simply distract the Dead hordes closest to the three newcomer groups and lead them away.

We flew on a roundabout course to the Dead that were no doubt getting uncomfortably close to the nearest group approaching The Think Tank.  Slowly we hovered above them, The Colonel and I taking a few potshots, killing a couple of Dead just to get their attention.  Once they realised food was above them, they followed us as we headed away from the Living, drawing the Dead on a course leading behind them.  Smart Girl squawked on the choppers radio that everything looks like it's going nicely so far.

The second group were in danger of attack from two groups of Dead, a smallish one to their southeast, almost directly in their path, and another larger one north of that.  Pilot manouevered the helicopter smoothly above the smaller group, only about fifty or so, and we got their attention, moving northwards to join the two Dead hordes together.  This worked brilliantly, as the second, larger group seemed absolutely certain that the first group were following food, so they joined up.  As one massive tsunami of Dead, we wrangled them further north, for about two hours, before Pilot turned to the east once more, to try and distract the Dead harassing the third and final group.  This was the smallest of the four, only three individuals strong.  The radio squawked once again, Smart Girl informing us that the Dead from the first encounter were still following in our wake, as were the others.  Smart Guy came on the horn next, saying that one of the three down below was reading a much higher temperature than the other two.  He suggested that maybe they had been bitten.

Hovering in position for a moment, Pilot asked The Colonel what exactly she wanted to do about this.  I told them that if someone had been bitten and hadn't told the other two, they were fucked, but really, we all knew that.

“Take her down, we've got to deal with this now.  Keep her spinning, though...”  The Colonel told him, and he complied, lowering the helicopter smoothly in front of the three startled individuals.

The Colonel and I jumped out of the chopper, running up to the trio, to discover that they were sitting around a campfire boiling what appeared to be some stew.  It smelled terrible, though, but I suppose I was more used to finer cuisine than that which you find on the road these days.

“Welcome, strangers,”  The leader of the three, a big, burly, bearded, bear of a man with a voice to match greeted us.  Something tickled in the back of my mind, something was not right here.  I could tell The Colonel sensed it as well.  “Sit with us, have some stew!”

We sat with them, across the fire from them, both of us keeping our hands near our weapons.  We declined food, as we had eaten not long before we had left, though I had been starting to grow hungry in the chopper.  My appetite had swiftly fled once I had smelled their cooking, however.  I suddenly hoped I never found out what exactly was in that stew.

“Have any of you three been bitten, at all?”  The Colonel asked bluntly. The three looked around at each other and burst out laughing.  I softly told The Colonel that I really did not trust these people, saw her nod slightly in reply.

“Bitten? 
Bitten?!?
”  The gales of laughter returned.  “We don't
get
bit by them, we do the
biting!
”  Bear pointed out the butchered Dead lying a few metres away.  “They don't taste half as bad as they smell, do they boys?”  The other two men snorted in tandem.

“You've been
eating the Dead?!?
”  The Colonel gasped, and the laughter grew stronger.  “
You sick FUCKERS!!!!!
”  She pulled her gun and, three bullets later, we headed back to the helicopter, and home.

evening

Pilot flew us back to The Think Tank using a roundabout route that took us nowhere near either of the other two groups, in case the Dead still followed us.  Nobody spoke, even when The Smart Couple tried squawking at us.  Pilot hadn't heard or seen anything other than The Colonel stand up and execute three men, but was smart enough to know that he'd find out later.  As it was, all I wanted to do was throw up.

When we returned to The Think Tank, Smart Girl was waiting to accost us at the helipad.  She asked what had happened, and I just walked past her as The Colonel, loudly and with many an epithet, told her all about the Dead-eaters.

Not wanting anything to do with food, myself, I went straight to my room, and other than writing this, to bed.  I hope to hell I can sleep tonight...

February 13th Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Though the flames that had been guiding them had died down, the two remaining groups of survivors continued their approach.  They met up with one another, the two groups converging at a point barely two kilometres from the foot of the roadway leading up to The Think Tank.  The thermal imaging showed them facing each other, weapons at the ready.  A group of Dead, perhaps twenty strong, shambled seemingly out of nowhere to attack the parleying groups.  Quick to respond to any threats, they made short work of the Dead, then moved away from the corpses, seeming as though they were coming together as one larger group, yet looking carefully at the images, you could see clearly that the two groups were still separate from each other.

The snow had fallen heavy overnight, we discovered as we went topside to finish clearing the road of Dead, rendering movement difficult and slow, though it had ceased falling shortly after what passed for sunrise these days.  The Colonel estimated the new people would probably arrive late in the evening, or maybe at the latest tomorrow.  The satellites above showed that the road was less choked by Dead than it had been, thanks to our efforts, though they had spread out more along the length of the whole road.  This meant we both needed to distract and bait them into attacking the compound yet again, this would be relatively easy, but we also needed to kill as many as we could manage, and Firecracker suggested one or two of us at least make for the ledge again, either to whittle down the Dead from their flank as well, or to provide a well-needed leg up for the two approaching groups.

Junior and I volunteered for the ledge run, Redbeard insisting on joining us, while the rest began gunning down the Dead at the fore.  Junior asked, after we had gotten past the few Dead barring our passage to the way up, when we were going to Melbourne to look for Coppers family.  I replied that, if he wanted, we could leave tomorrow, and his face brightened.  He told me that Pilot had offered to drop him and any other volunteers for the task at a safe looking place to the east, a farm it had looked to have once been, that they had spotted while searching.  It would take two days of flight time to get there, apparently, but would shave about a week at least off our travel time to Melbourne.  Junior also mentioned that there had been a garage there, though he hadn't ventured inside, but with luck we might find a workable vehicle.

Once we reached the widest part of the ledge, where we could comfortably stand without threat of being grabbed by the Dead, we looked around.  Dead aplenty milled around the roadway, though far less dense than they had been when we rescued Firecracker's group.  Most of them were oblivious to the fresh meat near them, but a couple were getting the idea.  Gunfire stuttered in the distance as The Colonel and her group cleaned up their end of the road.  Redbeard pulled the pins from several grenades in rapid succession, launching them into the larger groups of Dead, which promptly exploded into tiny little bits of disgustingness.