Tankbread

by Paul Mannering

  ‘The restless dead will seek us out, I suggest we make haste,’ Tristan said. Like I hadn’t been telling them that only a moment before.

  ‘Sure, let’s go,’ I kissed Else on the top of the head, and she smiled, squeezing my hand. We slipped out of the ruined building. The sun was high in the sky now, the breeze had shifted and the smoke drifted downwind.

  Last time we came this way Else hadn’t learned to speak, we were on the back of a motorcycle and all hell had broken loose at the Opera House. I chose not to share any of this with Tristan. The horse was hard to hide and when we encountered small groups of evols Tristan rode into them with gusto, weapons flailing.

  ‘If everyone was like Sir Tristan, the evols would all be gone,’ Else said watching him work.

  ‘If everyone was like Sir fucking Tristan, we’d still be living in the Dark Ages. Come on, I’d like to get there before dark.’

  ‘Hey,’ she said to my retreating back. ‘Hey! What the fuck is your problem?’

  I turned around. ‘My problem? You’re drooling over the Tin Man and I’m busting my arse trying to keep you alive!’

  ‘I’m not… drooling. What the fuck does that even mean?’ Else stamped her foot in frustration, pulling her helmet off and pushing her coif back from her sweat plastered head.

  I ripped my own chain mail hood off and threw it on the ground. ‘It means you like him. It means that everything I’ve done for you is worth nothing because as soon as some new guy comes along you think he is the best!’

  ‘You’re crazy!’ Else laughed. ‘I just like the way he kills zombies!’

  ‘What’s wrong with the way I kill fucking zombies?!’ I threw my hands up in the air and marched back to her.

  ‘Nothing! He just… he’s got a nicer way of doing it.’

  I got in her face, yelling and waving my arms. ‘You’re a fucking moron! And he’s completely fucking insane! He thinks he’s a knight in King Arthur’s court! He’s going to get killed thinking he’s fighting a dragon or some shit!’

  Else’s tanned face was pale with fury, she opened her mouth and then with a snarl she drew her sword and sprang forward, her body slamming against me as the blade flashed past my ear. Hearing a wet gurgling sound, I twisted to see an evol with one crusted over eye socket, his teeth breaking on the sword blade rammed through the back of his mouth. Else twisted the sword and cut the spine. The zombie slid off her weapon and her arms curled around my neck. With tears welling in her eyes she said, ‘I don’t love him.’

  ‘I don’t love him either,’ I mumbled, and then I was kissing her. She didn’t react for a long moment, and I felt a flush of stupid rushing up my neck. Then she kissed me back, her lips touching mine softly in an exploratory way. A soft whimper came from deep in her throat and her crotch pressed against me. I went hard, harder than I’d ever been as her mouth opened against mine. I heard a soft growl and opened my eyes. Evols, always turning up at the worst moments. I pushed Else back, her sword flicked around my head and she used the momentum of her spin to decapitate a woman wearing broken glasses. We killed two more, stabbing them and chopping them into the ground.

  ‘We’ll talk about this later,’ I said. Else nodded, breathless and flushed from more than the fight.

  ‘Where the hell did Tristan get to?’ I started running. The chain mail suit was heavy and hot and even without the coif I was sweating hard. The street had gone quiet, the dead crushed and still. We got to the end of the block, looking each way and turning in slow, searching circles.

  His horse came into view around a rusting army tank, walking slowly she snorted and flicked her head, reins trailing in the dirt. I made gentle clicking noises and caught hold of the animal. Patting her neck and looking for Tristan.

  ‘Here!’ Else yelled and pulling the horse I jogged in the direction of her shout. I found Else crouched over the still form of Sir Tristan. He lay on his back surrounded by six destroyed evols. A broken piece of steel door frame had burst through his chest and the wound was oozing thick blood.

  ‘I am slain…’ he whispered, red spilling from his mouth.

  ‘No, you can get up. We can get you help,’ Else unfastened his helmet and slipped it and the chain mail hood off his head.

  ‘Easy, don’t try to move,’ I said. I could see the metal spike through his chest was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out in seconds.

  ‘One of those devils got under the horse, she reared and threw me, I landed badly,’ his voice dropped to a whisper, his words clogged with blood. ‘Don’t let me become one of them, there is no honour in such a soulless existence,’ he clutched at my hand his eyes burning.

  ‘Sure thing Sir Tristan. I’ll not let you suffer beyond death,’ it sounded weird to my ears but he seemed pleased.

  ‘Thank you my brave comrades. Never has a knight had such a fine squire, and a lady… truly the fairest in the realm… I bid you ave atque vale…’ He sighed, his eyes closing. Standing up I lifted his sword and took his head.

  ‘Hail and farewell,’ Else whispered.

  CHAPTER 40

  I’ve eaten more horses than I’ve ridden, but Tristan’s steed let me mount up and then only side-stepped slightly when I pulled Else on behind. It was nice not to have to walk for once.

  We rode through a city where we seemed to be the only living beings left. A month ago life still clung on here with that determination of humankind to survive against all odds. Sure some of us kissed dead-arse and others fortified themselves behind high walls and barbed wire with a siege mentality.

  Then there were the ones like me, pledging allegiance to no group or philosophy. I didn’t follow leaders, or join communes awaiting the arrival of the mothership, or the Americans or Jesus Christ in a chariot of fire. I just kept moving and surviving. Never planning any further than my next meal, my next safe place to sleep and never allowing myself to believe in anything. I realised as I rode through the decaying streets of old Sydney that in spite of myself, I had found something to believe in. The warm blooded girl who confused and terrified me with the way her mind devoured new information. Such a contrast to the total vulnerability and naivety she had when we met. With Else’s head resting against my back, her arms linked around my waist and the horse slowly plodding down the cracked blacktop, I finally understood that I did love her. I’d spent the years since the end of the world avoiding any kind of permanent arrangement because the ones you love die in this world.

  Try not to screw this up, I told myself.

  * * *

  The Opera House stood shining in the late afternoon sun, the shipping container barricade was intact and the bus they used as a mobile gate still blocked the entrance.

  ‘How do we get in?’ Else said, wiggling tighter against my back and resting her chin on my shoulder.

  ‘We can try through the Botanic Gardens, they have a farm up there.’ I kept my eyes on the streets and buildings. Where were the dead? The evols should be all over this place. Sydney had a population of over four million and that many walking corpses meant you could always see some of them, but this street was deserted.

  I turned the horse and we followed the wall around the green slope of the gardens until we found a place to get up off the road. The horse immediately started pulling her head down to graze. I let her do it, sliding Else down to the ground and then dismounting. The horse let me lead her, chewing mouthfuls of grass as we climbed the small hill.

  ‘Peaceful isn’t it?’ Else said, as we walked through the waist-high grass.

  ‘Yeah, almost too peaceful.’ We came out on a wide path that lead through the trees. Birds flew squawking from tattered skeletons at the sound of our approach.

  ‘Mind the cow shit,’ I said as we walked. The livestock they kept up here seemed to be doing okay. Eating grass and waiting for the evols to milk them probably.

  We passed gardens that showed signs of being tended until recently. Now weeds sprouted among the rows of fresh fruit and vegetables. I picked apples, oranges
and strawberries and we sat on the edge of the road, eating our first decent meal in a couple of days.

  ‘When we have our place, I want a garden like this,’ Else said. ‘With all these trees and these things.’

  ‘Strawberries,’ I said.

  ‘Strawberries, they are my favourite.’

  ‘You should try them with fresh cream and icing sugar,’ I said eying a wandering cow.

  ‘Cream from cows?’ Else followed my gaze. ‘Can we catch one and kill it for the cream?’

  ‘You don’t have to kill a cow for the cream, you just milk them.’ I explained where milk comes from, and how it’s extracted. Else burst out laughing, it was an infectious mood and high on fruit sugar we rolled around on the ground laughing till we cried. I guess the first person who ever thought of milking a cow got the same reaction from his friends.

  We set off again, feeding the horse apple cores and leading her down the path. The cows were used to people, and we found a corral where two of them stood next to large plastic buckets waiting to be milked.

  ‘No. Maybe later, on the way back,’ I said firmly. Something was not right around here and I wasn’t in the mood to try and milk a cow no matter how much Else sulked.

  ‘Goodbye, horse,’ Else said when we unsaddled Tristan’s steed and left her near a water trough. There are no guarantees anymore and we might not be coming back.

  ‘Kangaroos can’t breed with wallabies and horses can’t breed with cows,’ Else stated as we set off through the long grass, passing grazing wallabies hopping around in the late afternoon sun.

  ‘Is that right...?’ I was distracted; that old lizard hind-brain was pissing ice-water down my spine again. I waved Else to silence and dropping to a low crouch I moved through the grass, passing buildings that had more recently been converted to stables and food stores. We stopped at the fence that bordered the wide-open terrace around the Opera House. Peering over the edge of the sheer bank I could see the long pedestrian arcade was deserted. No living creatures moved and no evols either.

  We headed along the fence line, the ground sloped down and we sat in the long grass looking out through the fence at the sail-inspired structures in front of us.

  ‘Where did all the people go?’ Else whispered.

  ‘Dunno, maybe they left?’ Nothing obvious told us why they left. Did the evols kill everyone like at Moore Park? It made sense. The peace between the Tankbread producers and the zombies had collapsed the day we escaped from under the Opera House. Why would the dead leave anyone alive?

  The wide steps with the sandbagged machine gun nests were unmanned. Sea-birds shrieked and settled, tearing carrion strips from the few remaining bodies, a smell of salt and decay came on the breeze.

  ‘Let’s wait till dark and then we go in for a closer look.’

  Else nodded and slumped against me with a sigh. I crawled back into the long grass and made a nest. She crawled after me, stripping off her chain mail and curling up to sleep. I dropped my armour next to hers and lay there listening to the cows lowing and wondering what waited for us inside.

  CHAPTER 41

  I woke up to darkness and the ground sucking the warmth out of me. I sat up, shivering. Else kneeled nearby, sword in hand, staring out towards the fence. Her face intense like a cat on the hunt.

  Slipping forward on my elbows I murmured, ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Evols,’ she said, her eyes steady in the darkness.

  ‘You can see them?’ I blinked and stared into the gloom.

  ‘Can’t you?’

  ‘No, I can’t see shit. It’s dark,’ I drew my knees up to stand but Else yanked me down again. Now I saw them, three zombies, moving carefully, their clothes dark with fresh bloodstains. One still had a rifle gripped in his dead hand.

  ‘They have guns now,’ Else whispered.

  ‘Yeah, I recognise the one on the left. He was part of the house security force. Useless prick.’

  The patrol walked on. When they vanished around the corner Else stepped out of the grass and headed into the open, running in a crouch.

  ‘Shit,’ I muttered. Snatching up my sword I scrambled after her. We were without any armour and had no protection should the dead get wind of our presence. Our only hope was that there might be survivors inside the soaring edifice of the Opera House.

  I followed Else up the steps. She ducked down inside one of the sandbag emplacements. I dropped in beside her.

  ‘Guns,’ I said. ‘Cool.’ Firearms were scattered like discarded toys around the sandbag nest. I helped myself to a shotgun, loaded it and stuffed my pockets with spilt shells.

  ‘Where are the doors?’ Else looked along the glass wall across the top of the steps.

  ‘There, between those sandbags,’ we both glanced around. Seeing the steps were clear, we bolted. The glass door had been smashed. I pushed Else through the gap and crawled in after her.

  Inside the place was a mess, pot plants lay shattered on the floor, shelving units were tipped over and blood stained the desks and walls. I thought hard about where Charlie had led me last time I was here, through a door and down long corridors.

  ‘Baby food,’ I said and set off to where the cartons lay spilled across the floor. Stepping carefully we eased our way into the dark corridor.

  ‘Doctor Haumann’s lab was down here somewhere,’ I mentally ticked off the bathroom as we passed. A pool of dried blood spilled over the edge of the doorway, hanging in dark red icicles. Bullet holes dotted every wall, empty shells tinkled underfoot, threatening to send us skating with each step.

  We saw no bodies. No walking corpses, and no chewed remnants of people. I held the shotgun ready and tried each locked door we passed.

  One door stood open, a rack of guns spilling out into the hallway and a spray of blood fanned out across the opposite wall. ‘Looks like they left some for us.’

  I collected two SMG’s, matching the magazines on the floor to the ones already loaded into the guns and shoving them into my shirt. Else watched me shop. ‘Why don’t we just stab and cut them?’ she asked.

  ‘Because guns fire bullets, and bullets can destroy an evol’s brain from a safe distance.’

  ‘But they are so noisy,’ Else scowled at the weapons.

  ‘Else,’ I said, shoving the SMG’s at her. ‘It’s likely you are going to need to shoot some dead motherfuckers. Get used to it.’

  Else carried the SMG’s and I accessorised with an ammo belt for a pump-action Mossberg shotgun and a heavy bladed knife which I shoved in my belt. Three corridors later we stopped where a fluorescent light flickered beyond a door that had been smashed off its hinges. Long strips of torn flesh hung from the shattered door panels. It looked like a giant cheese grater. Something wanted to get in to the laboratory beyond real bad. We crept into the room where I'd first met Doctor Haumann. Broken glass and spilled chemicals lay in a rainbow sheet across the floor. The mess crunched underfoot and the air had the acrid, metallic stench of spilt acid.

  The door on the other side of the lab stood closed. I reached out to open it when Else spun around, her sword flashing into her hand. A filthy figure in a stained lab coat lurched back, his hands rising in surrender. I jerked the shotgun up and almost fired in fright. Blood and body juice sat in a broken crust on his ruined face. The flesh around his right eye had melted and the lidless orb bulged red and bloody. His left eye was swollen shut and deep pockmarks scoured his flesh down to the bone. The nose and cheeks were gouged, melted like in a fire, and he’d been pulling the tattered strips of his skin away making his wounds bleed afresh and revealing the patchwork of his teeth. The geek reached out blindly towards us.

  ‘Hel-bee,’ he whined through deformed lips. ‘Hel-bee.’ Else drew her arm back, ready to strike him down.

  ‘Hang on, Else. Yeah mate, we can help you. Tell us what happened here?’

  ‘I’b burned, abaline…’ his burst face and swollen tongue made it hard for him to pronounce his m’s and k’s.

  ‘Alkaline
breaks down proteins. Acid will burn you, a strong alkaline will dissolve you,’ Else said in her matter of fact way.

  ‘We’ll get you help, but first, what happened here?’

  Through careful listening I made it out.

  ‘Evols, attacked the sanctuary. They destroyed so much. I don’t know why. Doctor Haumann was alive last time I saw him. Charlie Aston too. I was too afraid to call out. I’ve been hiding here for weeks.’

  He cried a lot, dry hacking sobs, thick spittle and fresh blood oozing from his ruined mouth so much that my patience wore thin by the time we got what we needed out of him.

  ‘Beese, hel-bee,’ he moaned again. I nodded at Else and stepped back. It took her two blows to decapitate him. I like to think he died after the first one.

  Laying the shotgun on a bench I went over to one of the computers, more out of nostalgic curiosity than anything. I wiggled the mouse and the screen lit up, then it asked for a password or thumbprint identification.

  ‘Else, bring me that guy’s thumbs,’ I said. They needed a bit of cleaning, but his prints were intact. After a moment, we got the computer up and running. I clicked on folders at random, seeing nothing that meant anything to me.

  ‘Wait, go back,’ Else said from behind my shoulder. ‘Open that one,’ her finger stabbed at a folder labelled Poison Well. I double clicked.

  ‘Just more geek papers on geek stuff,’ I said.

  ‘Poison Well, I remember that name,’ Else clenched her eyes shut in concentration. ‘Before all of this. I sometimes remember things from when I was born. A man with white hair, said that Project Poison Well would be a success within twenty generations.’

  ‘Great, so what’s Project Poison Well?’ I said.

  ‘I can answer that question for you.’ We both jumped at the voice from behind us. Charlie-fucking-Aston, that bastard stood before us fresh faced, clear-eyed and thinking for himself. I lunged at him, but he stepped aside and casually threw me into the wall. Two evols holding guns stepped into the room and held Else at bay.