Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 3): March
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evening
We continued searching each room as we went along, stopping only when we reached the stairs down. There we camped, in a room next to the stairwell, planning our next move while eating. The Twin was right, these stairs seemed to go a lot further down than expected. Apocalypse Girl's phone jangled, signifying a message from one of The Smart Couple, but as she pulled it out of her pocket it died on her. Blaming me for it, as I had used up a significant portion of the phones battery life for light so I could write, she smacked me playfully across the back of the head as she plugged her charger into a wall socket overnight.
March 4 Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Making our way down the stairs, we ate on our journey. Lighting was now sporadic, flickering occasionally, whereas above our current level it had been steady. In time, we descended to a corridor running directly away from the stairs, but by now we had become so turned back on ourselves that there was no way of determining which direction the hallway led. However, as it was our only option, we started to walk along it.
After a good several hundred metres I began to feel a chill. Apocalypse Girl asked if anyone felt a draft, and Archer stopped, cocking his head to one side. He quietly told us to hang back, which we did a little, while he went on ahead. He drew his .45, and carefully we moved onwards. The chill became far more evident as we went along, the light becoming more stable, as well, though not for the ancient bulbs that flickered overhead. No, there was, for want of a better term, a light at the end of the tunnel.
noon
The Twin ran off ahead while we sat and ate a light lunch. We had gone through a little more than half the food and water we had brought along, so we needed to be heading back up to The Think Tank soon, so she had offered to scout out the light in the distance. I was just washing down the last mouthful of jerky with water when The Twin returned, puffing slightly from her run. Her facial expression was one of deep concern.
“You guys need to see this,” She began, “Just be quiet as you can, just in case, but it should be safe enough.”
We followed her another couple of hundred metres down the hallway, and came to a large, rusted grate over the end of the tunnel. Whoever had designed this place had put a back way in, but had neglected to do more than cover it with a simple steel grate. The Twin pushed on it slightly, and it moved easily, though noisily.
Looking through the grate, however, all we could see was Dead. Thousands of Dead. A vast carpet of Dead stretching as far as the eye could see lay no further than a kilometre away, shambling along in a westerly direction. Now that we could see enough of the outside world, we could make a guess as to where we were, and the orientation of the tunnel. It stretched out behind us, also to the west.
Apocalypse Girl's phone jangled urgently at her, and she whipped it out as we moved back inside.
“Oh shit.” Was all she said, showing me the phone. Two messages awaited our attention. Emergency situation, need to discuss, return at once. That was the first. The second we didn't really need, not now. Massive horde approaching in Family's wake, RETURN URGENTLY!
I took the phone off her and replied with Two days out, will return ASAP then we marched back down the corridor, and back up the stairs.
evening
We had to stop once we reached the top of the stairwell, going up stairs being that much more difficult than descending. Close to collapse from exhaustion, we camped in the same room as the previous night. Another message had arrived during our climb, this one reading Family is three days away. Horde another four behind them, by best guess. Need to plan defence NOW. The phone rang, then, Apocalypse Girl handing it to me. The Colonel was on the other end.
“That psychotic Mother and her Family are closing. We have time enough to prepare a solid defence, but we need to know if you found anything we can use down there.” I told her that we found something interesting, but it wasn't particularly useful in this instance. She asked what it was, and was silent for a good minute after I reported the neutron warhead on the missile. “Yeah, that won't help us now.” She said. “Though I will need to check it out myself. I might be able to find a use for it. Maybe for the Dead?” Then I told her of the stairs to the corridor and grate, where we had seen the horde firsthand. She suggested that it might be a good idea to secure that grate, make sure we have a working back door.
We might need it.
March 5 Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Awakening to the sounds of approaching footsteps, I snatched up my .45 before I was aware enough to realise that it was a crew from The Think Tank coming to investigate things further. Foreman poked his head through the door, nodding with satisfaction when he saw us, though the glare he gave me left no doubt. He blamed me for the deaths of his companions at The Farm. Fair enough, really, because so did I. Vanishing back up the passage, he barked to somebody that he had found us.
A few seconds later, The Colonel almost flew into the room. It was pretty clear she hadn't slept in a while, perhaps not since we made it back from Melbourne. As our little scout group gathered ourselves together, she told us that she had inspected the missile we had discovered. A neutron bomb it was, indeed, and though the arming system was still intact, there was no targeting system available, having been stripped when this part of the facility had been abandoned, perhaps twenty or more years ago, by The Colonel's estimate.
Foreman bolted past the doorway, a few others that I vaguely recognised as being newcomers following in his wake, and we heard them marching down the fucking long stairs to the fucking long corridor that led to the grate from which we had seen the fucking large carpet of Dead. They carried with them a few spare doors, that they had clearly torn from their hinges on this level. The Colonel told us to get back up to The Think Tank and wait for her in the main computer lab with Smart Girl. Smart Guy was busy inspecting the interior of the missile silo itself, in an effort to figure out why exactly the lake was just hanging up above the warhead, rather than flooding the entire place.
noon
We made our way up to the top of the silo, hearing the muttering from Smart Guy as he obliviously wandered out from the catwalk at warhead level. I could make out little, something about pressure differentials, but nothing that made any sense to me. I am hardly a scientist. As it was, Redbeard very nearly trampled him, and would have if not for The Twin yanking him out of the way at the last instant.
The Smart Guy accompanied us to the elevator, and while we awaited the lift's imminent arrival, he mentioned that the only thing he could see that the nuke could be used for was to “sterilise” The Think Tank. Apocalypse Girl asked him why on earth he would even think of such a thing, to which he replied that the Dead might get in, or The Family might overrun us. There were no doubt any number of other possible scenarios that might result in such drastic action, but The Smart Guy assured us that he was in no particular hurry to detonate the thing.
Eventually the elevator descended, the doors opening to allow ingress. The ride up was interminably slow and painful, I just wanted to get the fuck upstairs to the computer labs, in order to see the situation I had created for everybody here.
evening
Firecracker sat in the main computer lab with The Smart Girl, Sister and Junior joining them. Apocalypse Girl, Archer and I sat down with them, Apocalypse Girl asking one half of our resident geniuses to bring up the satellite view of the approaching army, and horde of Dead. The smudge that I had spotted exiting Melbourne the last time I was in this room had actually been the leading edge of what seemed to be every shambling corpse left in the city and surrounding suburbs coming out to meet, greet and eat us.
Firecracker looked at me with a worried expression, asking what, if anything, we could do about the oncoming mobs of approaching trouble. I shrugged, as I really had no fucking idea at all. Dropping into a chair, I slouched, Apocalypse Girl seating herself much more delicately beside me. The Smart Guy told Firecracker and his female counterpart about the limited potential o
f the warhead. He even went on to state that it must be activated manually. Whoever did that was most certainly not going to survive the experience.
The Colonel stormed in at that moment, flatly stating that nobody was going anywhere near that fucking bomb any time soon. Apocalypse Girl asked just what had brought all of the Dead out of Melbourne, Sister saying that she wasn't sure, but she thought it was the grenade that Redbeard had thrown at the bandits that had been chasing us into the storm-water system. The noise coupled with the vibrations made for Dead brains thinking of food, apparently.
The Smart Girl pointed out, also, that before the Dead had left the city a number of small groups of Living had been spotted converging on The Family's territory, seemingly joining up with them. “Fucking bandits!” Sister spat. In the last few days before we had rescued her, she had encountered some of them individually and in small groups, she told us. The two lone bandits had both tried to rape her, resulting in her having to bludgeon them both to death in self defence. The small groups had been trying to kill her out of revenge for their fallen brethren. After several of each of these groups had fallen to her arrows, they had given up.
Now, however, it appeared as though the bandit groups had thrown their collective lot in with that of The Family, no doubt The Mother had manipulated them into agreeing to help her take The Think Tank by force. The Colonel ordered the closest view The Smart Girl was able to manage of The Family's position.
Nodding, the perpetually lab-coated and bespectacled girl complied. She locked onto the relevant position, zooming in as much as she was able. We were able to clearly see The Mother, surrounded by her crossbow-wielding guards who seemed to be watching everything at once. Others milling about the camp were clearly bandits, the two groups working separately, yet together. It was obvious that there were a couple of different factions present among the bandits, too, but they were kept well apart by The Family.
“Target practice for everybody tomorrow.” The Colonel insisted, before Apocalypse Girl and I retired to our rooms.
March 6 Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Though I lay awake for a large portion of the night, I eventually slept like a log. Apocalypse Girl had to shake me awake, and even then I felt like nothing so much as rolling over and going back to sleep. She wouldn't take no for an answer however, and shortly afterwards we entered the kitchen to grab a late breakfast. Sister was in there with Junior, the sight of whom filled me with guilt. If not for me, the young lad would still have both of his arms. Overcome, I began to apologise to him, only to have him start laughing. Naturally this put me off a little bit.
“Dude! Going into Melbourne was my idea, remember? I was the one that insisted we track her down,” Junior gestured in Sister's direction with his stump. “Remember?” I told him that I remembered all of us agreeing to find the teen hothead, but yes, he had certainly been the most adamant. “Okay, look, I know you blame yourself for my arm, and for that bitch outside coming for us, but it's not your fault! I was the one that fell on her son, then that big fucker fell on both of us. You put a bullet in his head, sure, but he wanted you to, I saw that in his eyes.”
Apocalypse Girl supported Junior's assertions, further saying that The Mother had overreacted totally when we had passed through her land on our return trip, but since it had been her only remaining son, she could understand that, somewhat. Not enough to hook up with bandits and rapists to declare war against us, though. “Bitch is just fucking crazy,” She stated.
“Crazy or not, they outnumber us three to one, they are heavily armed, and I'm not too certain about our topside defenders' loyalty.” The Colonel said, striding in. She still looked as though she hadn't slept, but she had freshly taken a razor to her hair, and was loading herself up on coffee whilst she spoke to us. “If she's in charge, and not one of the bandit groups, then she'll want the bandits in the vanguard. She's crazy, yes, but not stupid. They're as much a danger to her group as they are to ours, the main difference being that she is out there with them.” With that she stalked out with her coffee, shouting behind her a reminder about target practice.
noon
Firecracker was overseeing the shooting range, making certain everybody could use as many different types of firearms as we had available, with Doctor painting targets with vulnerable points of the human body, kidneys, heart and lungs in particular. The idea was to let The Family wander on up the road, and when the gunfire starts, kill as many of them as we can manage. As these were Living, however, The Colonel decided that creating a few Dead from the vanguard of bandits to cause a bit of havoc would help us out a little.
The sound of assault rifle fire filled my ears, the scent of gunpowder lay heavy in the air. Picking up a spare sniper rifle I joined The Twin, Apocalypse Girl and Sister under Archer's expert direction. He had needed to fulfil many different roles in Vietnam, including that of a sniper, which meant he was ideal for training the four of us.
Archer also had us making use of silencers, as our first shots at the least, should take the enemy unawares. This reduced the initial muzzle velocity of each bullet slightly, and Archer wanted us used to it. Firecracker and The Colonel both nodded approvingly upon seeing our progress, the latter suggesting that the five of us take up a position atop the helipad. Our topside-exiled guardians would be our first line of defence, but the five of us armed with these rifles would do far more damage before The Family even get anywhere near them.
evening
After we had eaten, I sat in a smaller computer lab alone with Apocalypse Girl, both of us talking quietly about everything we had experienced together since first meeting at that ill-fated party. So much death. The attempt to keep Valet alive after his bite and subsequent infection, eventuating in his Death, and death. The first place we had come to consider home, the commune, that had been taken from us by bandits and the Dead, and our flight from it. The Kid and his strange infection, that would kill and raise others in mere minutes, but afflicted him in other ways.
Coming to the strange ghost-town of Melrose Park, where I had found my sword, then the tiny little place where we had met Copper, that hadn't even known the Dead had risen, until the horde following us arrived. Our narrow escape from that place, Archer's not-quite-sacrifice, though we had thought him well and truly dead at the time. Biker, who had escaped from an incredibly nasty situation, eventually blowing her own head off with a shotgun after slaying the person responsible for causing her such anguish and pain.
Our desperate, though incredibly slow, flight through the snow with The Snail, short lived though it was, losing Copper in the process. Then The Smart Couple getting in touch out of the blue, sending Pilot to rescue us, learning of The Facility, and helping out first Auntie and Redbeard's family, then Firecracker and her group. The trio that had been eating the Dead, that The Colonel had dispatched in utter disgust.
Then came our trip to Melbourne, through The Family, though at first they had been friendly, even willing to help, but with The Mother losing her only remaining child during our rescue of Sister, she went more than a little nuts.
The helicopter crash that nearly killed us all, would have done if not for Archer's timely arrival. Then the Depths of The Think Tank, and all we had found down there. Then we came at last to the massive amount of Dead approaching The Think Tank, slowly but inexorably coming closer with each passing second.
Apocalypse Girl brought up the satellite image on a nearby computer, so that we could check on the progress of the Dead-carpet. I heard her swear, then echoed it myself as I saw the trail of destruction that lay in their wake. A group this large could easily flatten the upper compound, then it would be a matter of simply falling down the elevator shaft in large enough numbers. For a group that large, they'd be inside The Think Tank in hours, maybe minutes.
About the best we could hope for right now was for The Family to turn around and inflict some seriously heavy losses to the legion of Dead approaching.
Not fucking likely.
morning
I awoke while Apocalypse Girl slumbered, snoring away contentedly with her dream-world. Perhaps she dreamed of the life she had lived before this one, as I did occasionally, maybe of another life built upon the ashes of the Dead. Extricating my arm from under her head without waking her proved difficult, but not the impossible task of previous mornings. I showered, by which time Apocalypse Girl had roused herself. We ran a razor over each other's scalps, to keep them fresh and frozen.
Together we headed for the mess area, Gift-Shop Girl and Auntie having prepared a huge breakfast for everybody. We sat at a table with The Colonel, Firecracker and Redbeard. The Colonel, finally, looked well rested. When Apocalypse Girl commented on it, she simply said that she hadn't ever had any trouble sleeping the night before a battle. Looking around at our other defenders, it appeared as if only the three of us had managed to get any sleep at all. Redbeard had bags under his eyes, Firecracker's red mane snarled and tangled its way down her back.
Apocalypse Girl offered to cut her hair, Firecracker's reaction turning from shock and offense to gratitude when she realised how easily the Dead would use it to make a meal of her. They went off to find a spare bathroom to shear her flaming mane. When Redbeard and The Colonel were done breaking their fast, they headed off to the main computer lab, where I joined them a few minutes later. Archer was there already, seated upon a table, watching the approach of the bandit vanguard of The Mother's army.