Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 3): March (11 page)

After nightfall I heard a scraping on the roof of The Nightmare, and quietly as I could manage slipped up into the turret, sword at the ready.  Sensing motion I sliced, only for my target to duck under my blade and say in a forced whisper “What the fuck are you doing you fool?”  It was Redbeard, The Colonel just behind him.  They stripped off the outer layers of Dead-entrail-encrusted rags they had used as a disguise, throwing them into the horde, before slipping inside.

Apparently what had happened was they had found a service station, filled up the spare canisters easily enough, and then the Dead arrived.  They had just enough time to hole up inside the cashier's office, leaving the fuel outside, and The Colonel, remembering Firecracker's idea, snagged and disemboweled a Dead one, coating their rags with gore that masked their Living scent.  I asked exactly how much farther down the road this service station was, for The Colonel to say with a wry smile that if we hadn't traded fuel to The Traveller that we would have easily made it.

March 26
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Many, but hardly all, of the Dead had moved on by morning.  Not any where near enough of them had left for us to risk grabbing one, they were far too densely packed for that, nor were we particularly wanting to eviscerate a Dead one where we eat and sleep.  If we used our guns to thin their numbers, we would only attract those that had left and be right back where we started.

No, our only recourse was, once again, to wait.  This time, at least, we were able to see them leaving, one or two at a time, getting bored with this idle lump of former warmth and sound that had attracted them yesterday.  They were not leaving fast enough to suit us, however, and our patience was wearing very fucking thin.

Sister took up her bow and remaining arrows, I pulled out my blade, and we both went up to the roof.  Any within reach of my sword fell into the grey snow, never to rise again, and Sister took a dozen down with her bow before she ran out of ammunition.  Then we ducked back inside.  It didn't really make that much difference, but it felt a bit better actually
doing
something.

noon

At the very least we had plenty of food with us, so we ate a hearty lunch as the last few Dead shambled off into the snow.  All six of us would head off to the service station, as there were five canisters and at least one of us would need to have a weapon free, just in case.

The Colonel had been correct in her assessment, had we not traded with The Traveller, we would certainly have made it here with the fuel we had.  As it was, we were trudging through the snow for maybe ten minutes before coming across it.  Redbeard carried two canisters, so Apocalypse Girl and I were left to cover the rest of the group, she with pistol drawn, I with katana.

A few Dead had managed somehow to turn around and had come between us and The Nightmare once again, but I cut those down with little difficulty and we began the task of pouring fuel into the tanks.  Apocalypse Girl called out for me softly from the rear of The Nightmare, and when I reached her I swore under my breath.  “I know...” she whispered.  “What are we going to do?”

The entire horde from last night seemed to have turned around and were shambling slowly in our direction once more, the deeper snow slowing them down a lot, but they would reach us in minutes and Redbeard was just now moving the third tank into position.  I told him to forget it, put them all back into The Nightmare for now, as we had to get to the service station before we, and it, were overrun.

The Colonel took the rear gun, I jumped up into the turret, and we began blasting chunks of Dead flesh away as Apocalypse Girl got The Nightmare moving.  We made it to the service station in barely a minute, giving us a decent amount of time, twenty to thirty minutes at least, to fill the tanks up.

Redbeard began siphoning the fuel from the underground tanks while Apocalypse Girl, grinning evilly, drew a line with highly combustible materials away from the service station.  She was done in two minutes, Redbeard finished in fifteen, and the Dead were sighted in twenty.

Sister and Firecracker in the cab of The Nightmare waited for The Colonel and Redbeard to board, driving a short way down the road from Apocalypse Girl and I while she waited for just the right moment to set fire to the line of petroleum.

The flame jumped to life, melting snow to water, then vapour, as it sped towards its intended destination, the well-soaked rags descending into the underground fuel tanks.  We leaped up into The Nightmare as Firecracker moved us off as fast as she dared to get as much distance between us and the explosion that lit up the gloomy day like a miniature sun.

evening

We were elated that we had managed, once again, to survive where we had thought it an impossibility.  I couldn't help but feel that one day our luck wouldn't hold.  On the other hand, we had weathered the winter well enough so far, we knew enough about how to deal with the Dead that infested the lands, maybe our survival was more due to skill and knowledge now, rather than the blind luck that had driven alongside Apocalypse Girl and I as we had fled Adelaide, accompanied us through our stay at the commune and had helped The Smart Couple find us.

No, we would make it to Canberra safely, I was pretty sure of that.  We would find an armed encampment, but that was to be expected.  Everywhere the Living were now was an armed encampment, it was impossible to avoid with shambling Dead wanting to eat you.

March 27
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

The morning was rather uneventful, Apocalypse Girl and I occupied the cabin, Redbeard and Firecracker the middle, The Colonel and Sister in the back.  The road was reasonably clear, only minor former traffic related obstacles that could easily be driven around, no need to jump out and push them out of the way.

There were no Dead within view, not that the eye could see that far these days.  In fact it seemed a little darker than usual, perhaps due to the smoke from the explosion yesterday, though I felt it was true winter approaching.  We should be deep into autumn by now, so the weather will only get worse from now on.  Shorter, darker, colder days.  Deeper, darker, nights laced with the Cold.

noon

There was a herd of what had once been cattle in the road, Apocalypse Girl had driven around them, and the stench they gave was that of no natural cow.  Many of them had oozing sores all over their bodies, some of these had things growing out of them as well.  Thankfully we were going too fast for any of us to get a good look, because it would probably have resulted in a mess.

The roads were clearer now, there were no cars left in the road, in fact there was evidence that there had been, and they had been cleaned up.  I knew we drew nearer to our goal, suspecting that The Colonel's army pals might well have had something to do with this.

I asked her what she thought, she remained silent for a few seconds, nodded and said “They'd want to be able to travel quickly.  Yeah, it probably was them.”  We were definitely getting close.

evening

We camped overnight in a small town that had obviously been cleaned of Dead, as there was evidence of a huge pyre, bullet holes in most of the walls, every door in town had been kicked in.  It was pretty obvious that we were all feeling quite different things about reaching our goal.

Apocalypse Girl was clearly agitated by it, and to be honest I shared that feeling, though I don't know why.  The Colonel, clearly, was excited, though the anticipation was tempered with a smattering of trepidation.  Redbeard and Firecracker both seemed as though they were looking forward to a period of rest, Sister on the other hand just seemed to want it all to be over.  In any event, I think we were all too excited to be able to sleep properly.

March 28
Year 1 A.Z.

mid-morning

I was wrong.  Apparently proximity to our goal mixed with clear evidence of military activity rendered us insensate for several hours more than necessary.  Or maybe it was necessary.  Anyway, we ate a quick breakfast, then moved on down the road.  The wind had picked up, sending flurries of snow across our wake, which I studied with great interest from the rear gun.

“Dead ahead!”  Came Redbeard's call from the cabin, warning us to brace ourselves as he drove into the think of them.  There weren't any where near enough of them to slow The Nightmare's progress and before long I noticed that the bodies left behind us wore military uniforms.  “More of them!”  He shouted and we plunged into a second group.  I heard gunfire in the distance, yelled at Redbeard to go towards the gunfire, they could probably use our help.

Several more groups of Dead burst apart as The Nightmare blasted through them, slowing for nothing, driving through the streets of this small town towards the sounds of combat.

noon

Redbeard finally stopped, swinging The Nightmare around so that I could take out some Dead, The Colonel jumping up into the roof turret, and in tandem we began cutting down the vast horde of shamblers that were busily attempting to gorge themselves on the flesh of a platoon of soldiers.

They were clearly well trained men, firing in small bursts from cover, each burst taking out a Dead one, but several of them had clearly been bitten.  Even as we watched, one of these bled out from the wound on his neck.  I was distracted by a small group that had broken off from the main horde to head in our direction, and in the minute it took me to gun them down, the downed soldier had risen and was now busily gnawing on the face of one of his mates.

Another soldier drew his sidearm and put two rounds in each of the Dead soldier's heads before reloading his assault rifle and continuing his attack.  The Colonel's fire tore through the Dead as though they were made of paper, and under our combined onslaught, the soldiers were well able to rally and before long the Dead lay dead, the two remaining bitten soldiers having been saluted, then coldly executed by their companions.

Only three soldiers remained from the platoon, carefully coming out from behind their jeep, rifles not quite pointing at us, and in turn I politely pointed the rear turret slightly off to the left of the trio.  The Colonel jumped down, giving her name, rank and serial number.  They automatically stood to attention, saluting her stiffly.  She returned their salute, then she spoke briefly with them, returning to us after a couple of minutes.

“They've been on patrol, they've agreed to escort us in to the city, but it will still be a couple of days before we get there.”  She told us.  “They also thanked us for saving their arses.”

In moments we were away, following the trio of soldiers in their one remaining working jeep, the others having been rendered at least temporarily inoperable by the Dead, towards the north, and Canberra, at last.

evening

We decided that it might be a good idea to share some of Viking's homebrew with these soldiers, as they had gone through a lot of shit in the last couple of hours.  They told us that we had best be careful once we get back to base, as all intoxicants were now forbidden.  The three all declared their mouths eternally shut on the matter, however, since we saved them, but we should not let anyone else know.

March 29
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

As it turned out, nobody needed to swear anything.  One of the three had been bitten, but had covered it up, hiding the blood from his mates until it was his turn to keep watch.  Shortly afterwards he had collapsed, then risen, then attacked his friends, managing to sink his teeth into both of them before losing his own brains.  The other two had blown their own brains out.  We heard the whole thing from inside The Nightmare, rushing to help, but there was no time.

The Colonel called their base on their radio, telling whoever was on the other end what had happened, answering a few quick questions before jumping back into The Nightmare.  We were to continue alone, she told us.

noon

Further down the road, there were more Dead, small groups of no more than four or five that Apocalypse Girl went out of her way to run down.  What a fucking waste saving those soldiers had turned out to be.

The roads were almost entirely clear now, even to the point of having the snow removed on a regular basis.  There was a light dusting of it over the road now, but it was not permitted to gather into large drifts that might hide crawling Dead ones.  Here and there soldiers stood, always in pairs, with the occasional sniper on the rooftops.  Very occasionally we would see a Dead one wandering about.  These we put down when we could, swerving to hit them with The Nightmare usually, but sometimes I had to jump out and cut some down, as they were just out of reach.

evening

We came to the first gate in the triple layered chain-link fence just after full dark, and no matter what The Colonel told the gate guard, there was no getting in.  He told her that no matter the circumstances this gate must remain
closed
at night and would say no more on the subject.  When The Colonel asked him if we could at least stay here overnight, he told us that would be fine, so long as nobody tries anything stupid.

With nothing to be done other than waiting, we waited for morning.

March 30
Year 1 A.Z.

morning

The Nightmare's unexpected forward motion threw me from my slumber.  I climbed into the middle compartment, so that I was able to at least watch the road as Firecracker drove us into the Canberra military camp.  We passed the first gate, the very same guard that hadn't let us through last night welcoming us with open arms this morning, apologetically explaining that orders were orders.