Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 2): February Read online

  “We should be alright to just go through them, I think, we just have to take it slow and easy. Move into them too fast and they'll get the idea we're food. The snowplough should help separate them for us, hopefully.” I heard myself saying. The Colonel nodded, and tried to slip back into position. Copper stopped her, saying that we didn't need any more than two pushing right now. She tried to protest, but we could all see quite clearly that she was totally exhausted. I manouevered myself into the cab beside Apocalypse Girl as Copper and Junior began to push us through the Dead.

  We started out okay, that much was true, the snowplough separated them nicely, without them even noticing it, it seemed. As the cab of the Ute passed between the two groups, a Dead hand flailed at the windscreen eliciting a squeak from Apocalypse Girl. I turned to the others in the back, telling them to keep on pushing, Apocalypse Girl turning too, adding that we were just starting to go through them now.

  At that precise moment, three things happened. The Ute came across a downwards slope, and began to pick up speed. Junior hopped up in the tray and Copper tripped over something in the road, a pothole perhaps, and fell, grazing his hands. The extra speed of the Ute coupled with the scent of blood from Coppers injury drove the Dead wild, and as the rear of the 'snail' went over Copper leaving him defenceless in the middle of a small but hungry group of Dead, he began to scream.

  Choking back a sob, Apocalypse Girl turned the engine on, and we drove away from the dying Copper and his wails of agony, as the Dead tore him to pieces. After a few kilometres she stopped the Ute, turning it off, tears streaming down her face.

  evening

  We all huddled together in the tray of the Ute. Silently we ate, all of us mourning Copper and Biker in our own way. The Colonel, it seemed, was taking it harder than any of the rest of us. Apocalypse Girl was also not in a good state of mind, but was accepting it. Junior simply sat, jerky in hand, uneaten. The Twin reorganised our supplies into shares of five rather than six without a word.

  Apocalypse Girl asked me quietly if I thought they were going to follow us. I replied that they were probably too busy with Copper to bother with us. She nodded slowly, and said that was good. She told me that leaving him had been both the hardest and yet the easiest thing she had ever had to do. Hardest because she hated to leave a friend behind, but easiest simply by thinking of the rest of us. I said that he was already dead once he had left the cover of the 'snail' and that he would have wanted us to go on without him anyway.

  “He must have known somehow,” Junior said, out of the blue. “He asked me this morning, if anything happened to him to make sure we check up on his family. Made me promise.”

  “We keep heading to Melbourne then. If we find them alive we help them survive. If we find them Dead...” The Colonel left the rest unsaid.

  February 4th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  The snow had ceased falling by the time we awoke, but it was still fucking cold. The clouds were back to boiling once more, this time lightning flashing from one point across the sky in a dazzling display. Of more immediate concern, however, were the Dead that might have followed us, after Copper had died. The Twin, having the sharpest eyes of the five of us remaining, dropped behind us for a couple of hours in order to make certain we had no followers, upon returning reporting that she had seen nothing at all out of the ordinary. Apart from fucking snow in outback Australia! That was going to take a bit of getting used to, it seemed. The Colonel suggested that the nuclear winter could last several months, maybe even upwards of a couple of years. She went further to say that basically what we were experiencing was similar, in many respects, to what had happened to the dinosaurs. Apocalypse Girl asked if that meant the dinosaurs had to deal with Dead velociraptors and such. The Colonel shook her head, a wry smile on her face. No, she was just talking about the winter. The only real difference had been the catalyst. I pointed out that the snow the dinos had to deal with had probably been a bit whiter than our current sludge. In any case, the outlook certainly seemed grim, for the entire world it would seem.

  “Hey, I think I see lights up ahead...” Junior said, peering off into the distance beyond the Ute. I could see nothing in the gloom, even The Twin said she saw nothing. “I'm sure I saw something there.” We proceeded, with Apocalypse Girl in the drivers seat once again, the rest of us pushing the Ute, reasoning that four can push harder, and for longer, than two sets of two. This theory proved sound, but of course, that meant all four of us needed to be resting at the same time, as well. This meant less progress through the day, simply put, the five kilometres that we had estimated as an average travel distance each day had now dropped to three-and-a-half at best. It was going to take us a fucking long time to get to Melbourne.

  noon

  Another hold up, this time in the form of several cars, smashed together into one compact pile of metallic rubble. The snow had melted somewhat, leaving us with no doubt of two things. First, we would have to move this pile of crap off the road, at least partially, in order for the 'snail' to pass. Secondly, there were Dead trapped in the wreckage, at least three that we could identify easily. None of them were easy to reach, however, which meant that we had to move the whole damn wreck, at once, without disturbing the Dead overly much.

  We cleared the road fairly simply, though it required all five of us, Apocalypse Girl included, to shift it into motion. Once it was rolling, however, it seemed to want to just trundle off the side of the road and sit there, quite nicely containing the Dead within. We took the risk of searching the cars remains, though only briefly, and scored a family fun pack of chocolates for our troubles. Apocalypse Girl tried to tear the pack open at once, without any success due to her wounds, but The Colonel rightly pointed out that we should continue onwards, and save the sweet stuff for after our jerky dinner.

  We left the Dead trapped in the wreckage, hungering for our flesh, piling back into the Ute, and as before, we pushed our way onwards.

  evening

  Jerky followed by chocolate during the apocalypse is just about as close as you can come to a heavenly meal, as we discovered. Apocalypse Girl sighed morosely after finishing her second piece, as two each were all we had. Junior pointed out, as we clambered into the Ute's tray before sleep, that the one thing that could make this the perfect night would be something to smoke. The Twin, smiling devilishly, whipped out a baggie containing the ends of the last few joints. Enough to roll up a small one for everybody to share. We talked about the time before all this happened, telling one another bullshit stories from our pasts, boyhood moments of heroism, or romantic interludes. We spoke of films we had seen, some we had enjoyed, some not so much. I told of my very first car, a battered orange piece of shit that I had managed to get away with only paying fifty bucks for. That piece of shit had only lasted six months, but it had been a memorable six months...

  “It's never going to be the same again, is it?” Apocalypse Girl asked of nobody in particular. “With the Dead, I mean, nothing will ever be like it was, will it?”

  “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, t
hen 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 optio
n 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.