Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 5): May

by Rowlands, Dave

  Sister told of how her brother, Copper, had, on his first day on the job, once pulled over a drunk driver who had proceeded to vomit all over his fresh, new, shiny uniform. Copper duly joined him, throwing up all over the inebriated man. The worst part of that was that he had to finish up his shift covered in chunder.

  The Kid spoke of The Daughter, staring off into the distance to the west as he did so. He stroked her sharktooth pendant as he did so. She had loved the ocean, though she rarely saw it, living a fair way inland as she had. She took off one day, 'borrowing' Fat Dealer's Ute, heading to the coast. That was the first time she had left the commune, other than to go to school. She had stayed away for over a week, having found some of Fat Dealer's stash that she was easily able to sell. Not that the money had lasted her very long, though, as she had paid, among other things, for a shark-cage diving session. She had been fascinated with sharks, The Kid told us, where most girls would prefer dolphins. In any event, a fucking huge great white had come up to her cage and tried to devour it whole, leaving behind the tooth. When she returned, she handed it to Archer as a Father's Day present. He had made it into a pendant which he, in turn, gave back to her for her next birthday.

  Apocalypse Girl's anecdote involved an aunt of hers. Apocalypse Aunt had gone on holiday to Malaysia, spending a large amount of time in Penang. While there, she had her handbag stolen, along with all of its contents. Naturally this included her passport, all of her money and any other possible form of identification that she had carried with her. Fortunately, a tiny little Chinese man who identified himself only as Uncle, came to her rescue, taking her into his home. Not that it was reallyhishome, but it belonged to his nephew, the doctor. Apocalypse Aunt had stayed in comfort for a couple of weeks while Uncle's doctor nephew made enquiries at the Australian Embassy and in time she had been able to replace her passport and return home in safety. She returned to Penang about a dozen years later, when she received an email from the doctor nephew saying that Uncle had

  died. Her flight had been on December 27thof last year.

  My story, however, was one of The Disciple, back when I had known him as a decent person, called him my friend. He had always been a man of definite, absolutely defined morals and opinions, everybody had their place, no exceptions. It wasn't really surprising that he would lead a group like The Followers, thinking about it. One day, in high school, he came across a kid being beaten up by a few older guys. He didn't step in, not until the kid was on the ground being kicked by one of the older ones. Then, he stepped up, punched the older one in the face, told them all to leave the kid alone. After that, he took the kid under his wing, taught him how and ,most importantly,whento fight. A week later, the three older kids started picking on him again, though this time the younger kid was ready for it. He still got the shit kicked out of him this time, but all three older kids paid dearly for their victory. One had a black eye, another had been punched in the throat and the third was rolling around in the dirt, holding his nut-sack in agony. Black-eye got the kid in the end, that day, but none of the three ever dared lay a hand on him again.

  After our stories had been told, three of us headed into the truck while The Kid kept watch for any Dead, folding himself up atop the roof of the cab, closing his eyes and stretching out with other senses. He would warn us if anything came up.

  May 15thYear 1 A.Z.

  morning

  The Meat-beast had regenerated every single steak that we had carved from it yesterday, it seemed, and was ready for more. I took out my sword and cut off a few breakfast steaks, then a couple of larger hunks of flesh for later. To be honest, I kinda felt sorry for these creatures that had once been cattle, but they seemed to not feel it and besides, I doubted we could really do any lasting damage. And we needed to eat, after all.

  Sister stood on the bonnet of the truck, scanning the gloom through the scope of her sniper rifle, not seeing much. Apocalypse Girl wrapped up the meat that I passed to her, smiling at me. The Kid had gone off on another scouting run, really just running around in a wide circle, trying to sense any Dead that might be out there. When he returned, shaking his head, he told us that he still sensed a lot of them out there, most moving into the flames, now quite a bit lower down on the horizon than they had been previously.

  We piled into the truck and continued on our way, using the glow as a guide marker, which before too much longer turned into a column of black smoke, barely visible against the dark grey gloom of the sky.

  noon

  True to The Kid's judgement, we reached the impact site shortly before noon. Sister tried calling up Soldier on the radio, to tell him what we were investigating, but got only static for her troubles. Apocalypse Girl stopped the truck and we got out, drawing various weapons as we did so. The Kid told us that there were a few Dead around, though he couldn't confirm any actual numbers yet, they were mostly too distant. As we closed in to the still-smouldering crater, he warned us that there were some that had survived the flames up ahead.

  Our footsteps crunched and crackled, I realised we were walking on the charred bones of those Dead that The Kid had sensed strolling into their fiery deaths. The conflagration must have been quite mighty, as we were still a good hundred metres or more from the edge of the crater itself.

  As we approached the lip, we saw there were a good thirty or so Dead in various stages of incineration still wandering around inside the crater. They noticed us, naturally enough, and attempted to climb the side of the enormous hole in the ground. The heat of the impact, however, had turned the earth, mostly sand in this region, to a shiny glass, and the Dead were hard-pressed to make any actual progress.

  I asked The Kid if there were any more nearby, he shook his head. “It's hard to tell, really. These here arehungry, you see, so that kind of blocks everything else out. If there are any more, they'll probably be on the other side,” He told me. I pulled out a grenade, removing the pin and lobbing it gently into the centre of the reasonably densely packed group of Dead attempting to shamble up the glassy slope towards us.

  The explosion tore through their charred flesh and scorched bones, almost shattering the entire group of them with the shockwave alone. Sister and Apocalypse Girl took out the few that survived with sniper rifles and we descended into the crater, making sure to kick footholds into the shiny glass. I was honestly not certain what we might find down here, maybe a downed satellite, or a meteor perhaps, both of those might have been responsible for the fireball that tore through the clouds the other night.

  When Sister pointed out the glint of metal I felt more certain of my crashed satellite theory, but when thething leaped out from the smouldering wreckage I had to not only revise my ideas, somewhat, I very nearly shat myself.

  Fuck me, but this thing wasfast!In a blur it was on top of The Kid, trying to drive what looked like a steel spike sprouting from the tip of one of its three tails through his skull. He caught it in his teeth, snapping off the spine with a powerful bite. Two more spikes swung towards his head from opposing directions, which he took in one mighty claw each, stopping them mere millimetres from penetrating. A thick green ichor oozed from the tips of the two remaining spines to splash upon the glassy ground beside The Kid.

  The thing held onto The Kid's shoulders with one pair of claws, raking at his chest with another pair sprouting from its chest. A third pair of limbs held down his legs. Sprouting from between its 'shoulders' was the head from out of a nightmare. Large, shiny and slimy, it bared its broken, blackened teeth before darting its head down to try to take a chunk from The Kid's own. He blocked the creature's attack by shoving the two spines down its throat.

  A bullet hole appeared in the things flank, courtesy of Apocalypse Girl, followed swiftly by another in the side of its head, from Sister's sniper rifle. This only seemed to piss it off and it leaped off of The Kid, towards the girls. This brought it bounding past me, seemingly ignoring me as I sliced into its underside with my katana, releasing a torrent of thick, dark blue blood
.

  The thing fell at Sister's feet, bleeding profusely, and she finished it with a point black sniper round. The Kid stood, hobbled over to me and we wandered over to investigate the creature.

  “ What … the …FUCK?!?”Apocalypse Girl wondered, voicing my own question perfectly. I wiped the blackening blue ichor from my sword, then sheathed it in a smooth motion. I kicked the thing over, leaving a trail of giblets behind. The creature had three wide nostrillike openings in the front of its head, just above the toothy, triple-jawed mouth. “Is it … some kind of mutant?” The centre nostril contained what could have been some kind of compound eye. It was beginning to leak out now, though. The whole thing, in fact, was beginning to decompose before our eyes, leaving only a dark blue powder behind.

  “ I don't think so,” Sister said bare above a whisper. The smoke was clearing, revealing more metal, scattered about the crater with the largest part almost buried in the middle. Switching to her assault rifle, she wandered over to check it out, stopping for a moment before wandering back. “There're markings on this thing, whatever it is. I think it might be some kind of alien craft. Whatever it is, though, we need to wait for it to cool down a bit more before we can get near it.”

  evening

  We decided that we would spend the night in the truck, then check out the wreckage in the morning. Apocalypse Girl wanted to just leave, not even think about what we might find in there. She was the only one, though. Sister tried to help The Kid patch up, clean and bandage his wounds, but he told her not to waste anything on him when he will heal up nicely anyway. After a brief argument, he relented and allowed her to at least wash out his wounds with melted snow. He wouldn't allow her to waste any fresh water either.

  Once Sister was done with him, The Kid folded himself up in meditative position on top of the truck while the rest of us spoke briefly about what we had encountered. It was hard enough to believe that it was extraterrestrial, but all of the earthly mutations that we had seen at least still bled red, and didn't turn into dust upon death. That, coupled with the smouldering wreckage in the crater beside us did not bode well.

  May 16thYear 1 A.Z.

  morning

  A few Dead had stumbled into the crater overnight, The Kid warned us as we left the relative safety of the truck. Now that the smoke and flames were no longer a problem, Apocalypse Girl took a few dozen photos with her phone. The metal gleamed brightly, though there was little enough light for the purpose, the glass of the crater crackled underfoot as we descended once again. The Kid, whose injuries had already mostly healed over from yesterday, moved in and swiftly dispatched the few new Dead.

  The alien craft seemed to have mostly disintegrated upon impact, but a large portion appeared more or less intact. We pulled out our pistols and moved towards the centre of the wreckage, keeping an eye out for an opening of some kind.

  We found a corridor that had half been disintegrated, Apocalypse Girl's keen eyes spotting the panels next to rounded doorways. Placing her palm on the nearest, the door melted away, allowing our entry. Glancing at me momentarily, she entered the newly discovered room, gun leading the way. I put my own away, drawing my sword instead, quietly motioning for Sister and The Kid to stay outside and on guard. If anything came at us in these cramped quarters we would be ready.

  The shining walls inside the room were pristinely preserved, betraying no sign of any kind of crash. Apocalypse Girl had discovered some kind of medical lab, it seemed to us, as there were small, sharp instruments arrayed on racks, not to mention a large, menacing-looking machine tucked away in one corner, bristling with what looked like hypodermic needles. A holographic display flickered to life, showing a pair of skinless, hairless and very naked humans, male and female. A moment later the display showed the insides of the pair, the female being obviously pregnant. With a start I realised that it was Apocalypse Girl and myself. The display disappeared a moment later, as we exited the room.

  “ Anything interesting in there?” Sister asked us. I shook my head, while Apocalypse Girl described some of the equipment we had seen. “Ahh, the anal probing room, I see.” We smiled somewhat at her attempt at humour. “There might be something useful in there, though.” I told her that it seemed unlikely, anything alien would have different physiology to us, after all and any medication would be geared towards them. Undaunted, she ducked in anyway, returning a moment later with some of the sharp, spiky protuberances, saying that she had been thinking more along the lines of weaponry than medical supplies. She carefully wrapped them and put them away.

  Apocalypse Girl tried the next panel, on the other side of the corridor. This one opened onto what was clearly a cargo hold, though the cargo had not survived the crash. Whether it had self-destructed or been burned away by the fires which had consumed part of the alien craft was irrelevant, all we could see was black soot covering every available surface. The stench was unbearable, and we backed away. The door closed, cutting off the unpleasant odour.

  “ Shall we see what's behind door number three?” Apocalypse Girl joked, swiping her palm over the third and final panel, at the end of the vastly-shortened corridor. I followed her through, Sister close on our heels. When we were through, The Kid folded himself under the low doorway.

  The sight that lay before us was not a pleasant one. Two bodies, definitely not human, had been crushed with such force by loose machinery, spreading a greyish souplike glorp around the room. All that remained intact was the arm of one alien under one machine, the legs of its companion sticking out from under another in a death not unlike that of The Wicked Witch of the West. Not a lot left.

  Moving further into the room, The Kid theorised that it must have been the bridge, or command centre of the craft, as there were several displays around the edges, with seating for the crew that monitored them. A large, central chair dominated this end of the room which The Kid suggested was likely the captain's seat. It looked cramped and uncomfortable. Sister asked him how he knew so much about alien ship design. “I don't,” The Kid replied. “I just used to watch a shitload of Star Trek.”

  I thought I saw movement from behind one of the consoles, went over to investigate with my katana at the ready. There were several more dead aliens over on this side of the room, seeming to have been thrown into walls, the ceiling perhaps, and crushed with the impact of the craft crashing. They were small, barely over a meter in height, by my best estimate, hairless but for a soft, dark green downy looking substance covering their greyish skin. The more or less human-like facial features were a little disturbing, though their eyes were a little larger and their ears much smaller, almost funnel-like in

  appearance.

  Each one wore a tight-fitting uniform, shiny and metallic to look at, though soft as silk to the touch. Apocalypse Girl had moved over to my side while I investigated the pile of dead extraterrestrials. “So they reallyarelittle green men, then,” She observed. “Little greenfluffy men...” At that moment one of them moved. Apocalypse Girl stood from her crouching position, gun in hand pointed at the apparently not dead alien. It started to convulse.

  Asking Apocalypse Girl for a hand, I grabbed hold of its arms, she took its legs. A moment later we had it lying on a small table in the medical lab, the holographic display showing what I assumed to be ruptured organs and shattered bones. In seconds, the machine in the corner powered up, ejecting a tray just large enough to deposit the unconscious, seriously injured extraterrestrial. The tray disappeared back into the machine, which began to whirr and buzz, the pointy needle-looking attachments jabbing down into the body of the device, and, I assume, the alien inside it.

  noon

  The medical machine worked its technological marvels in under an hour, and the tray spat out a freshly healed, but still unconscious, extraterrestrial. The holographic display showing the previous injuries compared to the current state of the alien. The Kid went off to grab some food for the rest of us, at Sister's request, and we sat around eating, waiting for this odd little cr
eature to wake up.

  “ I never thought I'd ever meet an alien,” Apocalypse Girl told me. “For fucks sake, I never even thought they existed!” She sounded shaken. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. “Then, I never thought the Dead would walk, either.” That was one of the things I admired most about Apocalypse Girl, her adaptability.

  “ I always knew they were out there, somewhere,” Sister told us. “Just not this close!” She chuckled. “Should we maybe tie this little guy up?” She gestured at the unconscious alien. I told her that, since we didn't know if it was hostile or not, it was probably better not to. We had our weapons, if necessary, I also pointed out. “Weapons not necessary. Mean humans no harm.” The little critter sat up, chattering at us in a gravelly, yet strangely high-pitched voice. “Gratitude for not restraining or detaining.” Sister was staring at it, an amused smile on her face. It blinked. Three sets of eyelids. The eyes themselves were black. Apocalypse Girl offered it some of her Meat-beast steak. “Not needing feeding. Also different inside. Food wrong food.”

  I asked it where it had come from, it thought for a moment, then pointed, up and to the east. “That way. Loooooongway away.” It looked upset. “Not able to tell. Not know human talk well. Told no more humans when arrived. Found your group. Was watching you. Too closely.” Its mouth moved upwards slightly. I realised after a moment that it was smiling.

  “ What are you even doing here? On Earth, I mean,” Sister asked the little guy. “I mean, in the movies, aliens only come here to wipe us out, or enslave us, things like that. You seem, well, too nice to be like that.”

  The extraterrestrials mildly alien visage turned sour. “Scientist. Here to learn. To watch. To listen.” It waved a gloved, four-fingered hand over its other wrist. A moment later one of the radio conversations between Apocalypse Girl and Soldier warbled from a tiny, hidden speaker in the alien's uniform.