I did, however, agree with The Boss on one major point, though. These Terraformers were clearly hostile, clearly the enemy. We had to do something about them. Was it even going to be possible to kick them out, now that they’re actually here?
evening
Most of the base had heard the news by dinner time. The mess was almost empty, just the more hardened troops making sure that they get their last meal in. The ones that knew that any meal might be their last. Looking at Apocalypse Girl, I realised that we were actually there for the same reason. It felt strange to lump myself in with these guys, many of whom had participated in some of the more recent, ultimately idiotic conflicts amongst various races or cultures of humanity. Looking more closely, I realised that many of them might well have even been on opposing sides. The Dead rising made us all realise that human is still human, Living is still Living.
The Brigadier wandered in, almost in a daze, with a tray full of grub, and sat next to us. Shaking his head occasionally, he ate, clearly not tasting the food he shovelled into his gob. Every now and then, he would whisper something. Leaning closer I heard; “They really are aliens. Shit. We’re done for now.” He repeated the phrase over and over. Then, finished with the plate before him, he stood, saluted us all and all but fled back to his office. Some of the grunts began laughing derisively. As the ranking officer present, I felt I had to stick up for the poor guy.
“Look, you guys have all been through the shit, either before or after the Dead,” I stood on my table for effect. Many of the troops in front of me laughed as derisively as they had at The Brigadier. “And so have I.” Some in the back began chattering, telling people that I’d saved their bacon in and around Canberra. Many times over. Most of the laughter dropped off, the troops begrudgingly looking at me with respect. “He hasn’t. But, he still knows what’s what. He still knows that these fuckers are really out there. You’ve all faced death before, looked the Reaper in the eye. Respect the man for facing Death’s First Stare.”
Giant spoke out, saying that I was right. We had all seen that look, in ourselves and in each other. Just because he was an officer, unused to the prospect of an imminent and bloody demise, didn’t mean that he was less of a man. He had faced Death with dignity. She herself was going to his office to apologise in person. As she stood and left the mess, everybody followed, to the last man. Those from Canberra shared a smile and handshake for Apocalypse Girl and myself, first.
late evening
Just as I was about to turn in for the night, Giant came up to me. “He was almost ready to quit, you know.” Her expression, from what I could tell down here, at least, was grim. “When I knocked on his office door and walked in, he was putting his gun away. It looked like he’d had it in his mouth. I don’t think it’ll be a problem now though. Everybody apologised, one at a time, face to face. I think it’s done him some good.” I certainly hoped it had.
I opened the door to the quarters that I shared with Apocalypse Girl, hearing the radio chirp slightly as I did so. Snatching it up from the nightstand quietly, quickly, before she awoke to the noise, I scarpered out of the room, down the corridor, eventually ending up outside in the cold night air.
It was Smart Guy, asking us once again, almost pleading with us, to join him and his counterpart. He could still tell us nothing about where he was, not without our agreement to come directly to him, which I was unable to give. The more I learned about the way this world worked, the more I wanted to join our genius friends. The problem was, I had a duty here. He knew about the Terraformers, obviously, they had access to the same few remaining spy satellites that hadn’t been knocked out of orbit yet that we were using here.
All I could say was that if things get any worse, we would try to make our way to them. As Apocalypse Girl’s pregnancy progressed the likelihood that we were going anywhere became closer to nil.
September 7th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
I was clearly not the only one unable to sleep last night. Much of the population in the mess hall were comparably bleary-eyed, every few seconds someone yawned, setting off a chain reaction among those nearest. I myself was caught in three of these chain reaction yawns before making my way to the table at which my squad was seated. If not for Apocalypse Girl’s shoulder forcing me into a seat, I might have succumbed to the third, most vicious yawn-chain and passed out entirely. I had been thinking about my conversation with Smart Guy all night. And the Terraformers. And The Righteous. And Apocalypse Girl’s pregnancy. For fucks’ sakes, I was almost distracted enough that I nearly forgot about the Dead.
Naturally the main topic of conversation was the new extraterrestrial threat that had taken Sydney from the Shadow overnight. Their construction bugs were finally done and I was assured that I needed to have a look at the finished complex. Someone was passing photos around, mainly different angles of the single Terraformer that I saw yesterday. Wall was laughing at the suggestion that he might even lose against this thing in an arm wrestling match, though his chuckles sounded slightly strained. Giant just sat there, studying the enemy, a grim expression on her otherwise formidably pretty face.
Apocalypse Girl forced me to eat something, though I know not what, a mixture of exhaustion and trepidation stealing away what little ability my tastebuds had. The coffee was what truly mattered most, anyway. Blessed caffeine. With a half dozen cups of blackness under my belt I felt much more able to face the day.
noon
The Brigadier was in fine fettle today. He greeted the pair of us with a grin, thanking me for my words yesterday. He was fine, he told us, no more of that suicidal thoughts rubbish. No, his sidearm was for the Dead and aliens only, he assured us. Then, he was back to barking orders at subordinates while they scurried about like ants doing his bidding.
The computer lab was almost overflowing, no seats remained un-sat in, and there was precious little standing room. Every screen showed the newly grown Terraformer base that now occupied all of Sydney. The Harbour Bridge had now been incorporated into the main design, though the Opera House remained untouched. A ring of Terraformer technology encircled it but nowhere did it connect.
Zooming out we could see a sort of transportation network, tubes connected one part of the complex to every other section, what looked like large, dark figures speeding along inside. I could only assume that they were more Terraformers. Everything had a kind of sterile, metallic quality to it, as if a hospital turned into a city.
Still, it seemed as if everyone had to have a look. I saw The Colonel at one point, sticking her scarred nose into it, trying to gather what information she could. There was, unfortunately, nothing new to be learned. Just several thousand printouts of photographs to study and pore over for hours upon hours at a time. There really was nothing for the pair of us to do there, so we left. Apocalypse Dog was grateful that someone actually came out of the computer lab.
evening
Trying to take it easy was never a simple task, even before the world ended. Now it was all soldiers trying to take my time away from me. In this instance, it was Maori and Wall. The pair wanted to go topside and try to infiltrate The Righteous. They were easy enough to join up with, by all accounts, just a little rabid and territorial. They also didn’t like it when members of their organisation tried to leave. I still told them it was a bad idea. Grumbling about my decision, they nevertheless respected it and removed themselves from my presence, only to be replaced by The Colonel.
“Is there anything you can tell me, anything at all?” The small woman stalked about the room like a caged tiger. “I’ve been going mental without any news. Now, with Sydney, I just don’t know. How do we deal with these things?” I told her what I could, which was not a lot. Even then, I was yawning more than talking.
After The Colonel came an influx of regular troops, men that I had seen and served with around Canberra. It was amazing that many of these people were still alive, all things considered. There had been an awful lot of Dead encountered by bo
th them and us in the intervening months, not to mention all the bandits and ghouls and mutants of various strains.
In the end, I was not able to make my nightly radio run. Just too damned tired for any of that shit. Christ, I can hardly keep my eyes open now as it is. Sleep beckons.
September 8th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
I had a dream last night. That almost never happens, not anymore, so I usually take notice whenever it does. In this particular dream, I watched myself swinging my katana down upon Elder’s unprotected neck. I stop just shy of slicing into his dark skin, just short of seeing the blood spurting from his severed stump of a neck. Then, I ask him why he was letting me kill him.
“You’ll work it out sooner or later, mate.” Elder’s eyes sparkled as he winked up at me. They shone even brighter than the sun reflected off of my sword. “Everything has to happen the way it happens. There’s no point in struggling, you’ll only make it worse for yourself.” Then, the dream resumes, my blade descends, Elder’s head goes flying. As in reality, both head and body vanish, leaving only a red-stained robe and a pair of grotty thongs.
Then, Apocalypse Girl was shaking me awake. I was nearly late for my briefing with The Boss, and that simply would not do. So, I scrambled into my uniform and we made our way swiftly to the The Boss’s office. Apocalypse Dog thought it was some kind of race, tried to trip me up a few times, until we found Jester and were able to leave the dog with someone of a similarly small and mischievous stature.
The Boss was impatiently pacing back and forth when we arrived, the rest of my squad already there and awaiting orders. “Ah, good,” Her voice was dry. “Now that we’ve all decided to show up…” She launched into a series of instructions. We were going out on another scouting expedition, this time to find The Righteous camp for certain. We needed to find out approximate numbers, what sort of weaponry they used, anything and everything we were able. As before, we would have a two day window after drop-off to accomplish our mission.
“Remember this, if nothing else,” Her voice was weighed down by the gravity of her statement. “We need information. We don’t need bodies. If it comes to a firefight against a superior force, withdraw. As I said, we need to know their capabilities. If you guys don’t come back we can’t get that information. Dismissed.”
noon
Another tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. Fucking wonderful. All the locals seemed happy enough to see us, at least at first. When I asked if they had any trouble with Dead locally, one guy pointed us to a building that they had used in the beginning to house anyone that was infected. Now, it was a run-down old dilapidated building that was almost ready to fall down around its own foundations.
Once the front door was opened, the Dead wandered out. Maybe thirty, perhaps a few more. In all, nothing we couldn’t handle. Wall was covered in Dead giblets by the end of it, choosing to use his survival knife rather than his handgun or assault rifle. I completely understood: I preferred the katana myself.
The locals were happy that we had accomplished what they could not, at least now they could bury their loved ones. Some of those had been there since the very beginning. Some were a little more recent. In any event, there were far fewer people in danger of having their quarantine zone fail and being overrun by the Dead. In the end, we helped them erect fresh barricades, a little more likely to withstand assault by large numbers of shambling corpses.
They thanked us by offering to share their limited reserves of food with us, an offer that we obviously declined, telling them about the Meat-Beasts and even giving them the location of one nearby, that I had taken note of when flying overhead. The leaders of the community were almost in tears at this show of generosity, swearing that they would send their youngest and brightest to the AR-18 facility. I wasn’t so certain that The Boss would really want any more small town dribs and drabs, but accepted their offer gratefully enough. More trained guns to mow down the Dead would never not be handy. Until we run out of bullets.
evening
I was able to make radio contact with Fluffy once again, though it was able to tell me little that I didn’t already know. It refused emphatically any meeting with Apocalypse Mum, unless it was on the surface of the facility and I and her daughter were the only other humans around. Telling it that I could probably arrange that fairly easily, I bade it farewell.
Butler was next. No news from Adelaide, just the usual ranting from Her Majesty. He was of the opinion that, given time, she could be reasoned with. Perhaps even enough for an alliance with The Boss. It was not going to happen any time soon, though. From there, it was time to talk with Doctor, at The School in Melbourne. He had taken over after The Principal’s death, with almost universal approval from the residents. He wanted us to know that a large contingent of Mech-Techs had left Melbourne, heading for the big red rock in the middle of the country, where Nutter had told them he had seen Viking and myself in a dream, needing their help. He and Stutter had convinced nearly all of the Mech-Techs to join in the expedition, and The School’s defences were lacking somewhat as a result. Doctor had even considered hiring a few extra mercenaries from The Puller to keep the roads between Melbourne and Brisbane clear.
Curiously enough, nobody at The School had heard or knew anything about Sydney’s new owners. A quick request and a brief wait of around ten minutes later, and I had an answer from New Brisbane as well, not a single iota of information was available. The Puller wanted to send in some scouts, though. He even went so far as to order them to report to AR-18, directly to me, with whatever they discovered.
Finished with the radio, I glanced up, up some more, to see Giant’s worried expression. Asking her what was up, she heaved a huge sigh. “The locals have told Maori and Wall about a Righteous recruitment centre about twenty kilometres from here. The thing is, they didn’t want anyone to go there, except to wipe the post out. When they told me about it, though, it sounded more like they were going to try and join up. I know you didn’t want that, so I came straight to you with it.”
The locals had a couple of vehicles that they had kept in relative working order, so we were on our way after the pair before long, catching them up should not have been a problem. Except, of course, by the time we arrived, they were being frisked by a couple of nasty looking Righteous. The hilt of my sword was in my hand even before the stench registered in my nostrils. The same smell that I had encountered in Adelaide, while clearing out a department store full of Ghouls.
I sliced the head from the nearest, Giant firing above Wall’s head to take down the second. As the gunfire erupted, another seven Righteous swarmed out of the only nearby building standing, festooned with spattered blood and red paint. Maori and Wall ducked back, behind the Ute we had acquired, as Viking and Giant lay down suppressing fire and Scar lobbed a grenade into their midst.
Once they were all dead, I examined them more closely, and sure enough all nine of The Righteous were Ghouls. “No wonder they don’t like people leaving…” I told the others. “They make them all eat the flesh of the Dead. This is what it does to you, ladies and gentlemen.” Giant looked ready to throw up as the blood of the headless Ghoul corroded and pitted the asphalt of the road that it still seeped into.
September 9th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Not exactly the recon that Apocalypse Mum had been hoping for, but the fact that we now knew that they were a Ghoul cult was perhaps the single most useful piece of knowledge about them that we possessed. It did mean an extra briefing for me, telling everybody everything that I knew about the blasted creatures. For this, I asked The Colonel’s aid, as she was with me the first time I met one of them, three in fact, and the sheer wrongness of the situation made her instinctively draw her gun and execute each one of them. As it was, they laughed about their newfound diet, either oblivious or uncaring that The Colonel was gunning them down.
I didn’t know about their corrosive blood at the time, nor did I know that they laughed off bites f
rom the Dead. As I relayed what I experienced back in Adelaide, the room full of hardened soldiers and intelligent, scientific minds, all of them sat in silence, digesting the data. The results of the autopsies performed on the bodies of the Ghouls that we wiped out in the field were equally disturbing; their bodies literally began to transform from their diet. Their teeth grew longer and sharper, extruding out into fangs in many cases. It seemed that they no longer felt pain as acutely as they once would have, nor did they require daily sustenance. One learned fellow mused that they might not ever suffer hunger the way we know it. Their stomachs were completely empty, suggesting that the digestive system was working overtime, though it seemed as if the entire system was arbitrary. They seemed not to need to respire, at least not to the point that we do.
It seemed, as well, as though one of the doctors involved had perhaps suffered an accident, as she was being brought forward. “As you all know by now, the bite of the Dead is always fatal, though not immediately so.” Her accent was faint, but there. German, I thought. “The bite of the Ghoul, it appears, is in its own way much nastier.” As she spoke, the unfortunately bitten one began to convulse in front of the crowd. They recoiled as much as the benched seating would allow.
Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 9): September Page 4
