morning
The morning was rather uneventful, Apocalypse Girl and I occupied the cabin, Redbeard and Firecracker the middle, The Colonel and Sister in the back. The road was reasonably clear, only minor former traffic related obstacles that could easily be driven around, no need to jump out and push them out of the way.
There were no Dead within view, not that the eye could see that far these days. In fact it seemed a little darker than usual, perhaps due to the smoke from the explosion yesterday, though I felt it was true winter approaching. We should be deep into autumn by now, so the weather will only get worse from now on. Shorter, darker, colder days. Deeper, darker, nights laced with the Cold.
noon
There was a herd of what had once been cattle in the road, Apocalypse Girl had driven around them, and the stench they gave was that of no natural cow. Many of them had oozing sores all over their bodies, some of these had things growing out of them as well. Thankfully we were going too fast for any of us to get a good look, because it would probably have resulted in a mess.
The roads were clearer now, there were no cars left in the road, in fact there was evidence that there had been, and they had been cleaned up. I knew we drew nearer to our goal, suspecting that The Colonel's army pals might well have had something to do with this.
I asked her what she thought, she remained silent for a few seconds, nodded and said “They'd want to be able to travel quickly. Yeah, it probably was them.” We were definitely getting close.
evening
We camped overnight in a small town that had obviously been cleaned of Dead, as there was evidence of a huge pyre, bullet holes in most of the walls, every door in town had been kicked in. It was pretty obvious that we were all feeling quite different things about reaching our goal.
Apocalypse Girl was clearly agitated by it, and to be honest I shared that feeling, though I don't know why. The Colonel, clearly, was excited, though the anticipation was tempered with a smattering of trepidation. Redbeard and Firecracker both seemed as though they were looking forward to a period of rest, Sister on the other hand just seemed to want it all to be over. In any event, I think we were all too excited to be able to sleep properly.
March 28 Year 1 A.Z.
mid-morning
I was wrong. Apparently proximity to our goal mixed with clear evidence of military activity rendered us insensate for several hours more than necessary. Or maybe it was necessary. Anyway, we ate a quick breakfast, then moved on down the road. The wind had picked up, sending flurries of snow across our wake, which I studied with great interest from the rear gun.
“Dead ahead!” Came Redbeard's call from the cabin, warning us to brace ourselves as he drove into the think of them. There weren't any where near enough of them to slow The Nightmare's progress and before long I noticed that the bodies left behind us wore military uniforms. “More of them!” He shouted and we plunged into a second group. I heard gunfire in the distance, yelled at Redbeard to go towards the gunfire, they could probably use our help.
Several more groups of Dead burst apart as The Nightmare blasted through them, slowing for nothing, driving through the streets of this small town towards the sounds of combat.
noon
Redbeard finally stopped, swinging The Nightmare around so that I could take out some Dead, The Colonel jumping up into the roof turret, and in tandem we began cutting down the vast horde of shamblers that were busily attempting to gorge themselves on the flesh of a platoon of soldiers.
They were clearly well trained men, firing in small bursts from cover, each burst taking out a Dead one, but several of them had clearly been bitten. Even as we watched, one of these bled out from the wound on his neck. I was distracted by a small group that had broken off from the main horde to head in our direction, and in the minute it took me to gun them down, the downed soldier had risen and was now busily gnawing on the face of one of his mates.
Another soldier drew his sidearm and put two rounds in each of the Dead soldier's heads before reloading his assault rifle and continuing his attack. The Colonel's fire tore through the Dead as though they were made of paper, and under our combined onslaught, the soldiers were well able to rally and before long the Dead lay dead, the two remaining bitten soldiers having been saluted, then coldly executed by their companions.
Only three soldiers remained from the platoon, carefully coming out from behind their jeep, rifles not quite pointing at us, and in turn I politely pointed the rear turret slightly off to the left of the trio. The Colonel jumped down, giving her name, rank and serial number. They automatically stood to attention, saluting her stiffly. She returned their salute, then she spoke briefly with them, returning to us after a couple of minutes.
“They've been on patrol, they've agreed to escort us in to the city, but it will still be a couple of days before we get there.” She told us. “They also thanked us for saving their arses.”
In moments we were away, following the trio of soldiers in their one remaining working jeep, the others having been rendered at least temporarily inoperable by the Dead, towards the north, and Canberra, at last.
evening
We decided that it might be a good idea to share some of Viking's homebrew with these soldiers, as they had gone through a lot of shit in the last couple of hours. They told us that we had best be careful once we get back to base, as all intoxicants were now forbidden. The three all declared their mouths eternally shut on the matter, however, since we saved them, but we should not let anyone else know.
March 29 Year 1 A.Z.
morning
As it turned out, nobody needed to swear anything. One of the three had been bitten, but had covered it up, hiding the blood from his mates until it was his turn to keep watch. Shortly afterwards he had collapsed, then risen, then attacked his friends, managing to sink his teeth into both of them before losing his own brains. The other two had blown their own brains out. We heard the whole thing from inside The Nightmare, rushing to help, but there was no time.
The Colonel called their base on their radio, telling whoever was on the other end what had happened, answering a few quick questions before jumping back into The Nightmare. We were to continue alone, she told us.
noon
Further down the road, there were more Dead, small groups of no more than four or five that Apocalypse Girl went out of her way to run down. What a fucking waste saving those soldiers had turned out to be.
The roads were almost entirely clear now, even to the point of having the snow removed on a regular basis. There was a light dusting of it over the road now, but it was not permitted to gather into large drifts that might hide crawling Dead ones. Here and there soldiers stood, always in pairs, with the occasional sniper on the rooftops. Very occasionally we would see a Dead one wandering about. These we put down when we could, swerving to hit them with The Nightmare usually, but sometimes I had to jump out and cut some down, as they were just out of reach.
evening
We came to the first gate in the triple layered chain-link fence just after full dark, and no matter what The Colonel told the gate guard, there was no getting in. He told her that no matter the circumstances this gate must remain closed at night and would say no more on the subject. When The Colonel asked him if we could at least stay here overnight, he told us that would be fine, so long as nobody tries anything stupid.
With nothing to be done other than waiting, we waited for morning.
March 30 Year 1 A.Z.
morning
The Nightmare's unexpected forward motion threw me from my slumber. I climbed into the middle compartment, so that I was able to at least watch the road as Firecracker drove us into the Canberra military camp. We passed the first gate, the very same guard that hadn't let us through last night welcoming us with open arms this morning, apologetically explaining that orders were orders.
We then had to drive four kilometres between two fences to reach the second gate. The first guard had clearly a
lready radioed us in to him, and he let us through with hardly a word other than a low whistle of praise for our vehicle. After that it was another two klicks in the opposite direction and at the third gate we were told to turn off our engine and exit the vehicle. Firecracker complied, turning off the ignition, and we all filed out.
Immediately we had a dozen guns trained on us, we were ordered to disarm, and once we had done so we were led into a building where we were made to strip out of our clothes for an inspection. We were told by the embarrassed soldier performing the inspection that everybody who goes out gets inspected like this, same as any newcomers. Once we were declared clean and unbitten, we were allowed to dress once more, then we were led into a holding cell and told to wait.
noon
Beginning with The Colonel, they took us one at a time from the holding cell. When it came to my turn, just after Apocalypse Girl, Redbeard was the only one left. I was taken into an office that contained one table and two chairs. I was ordered to stand in front of the table and told to answer every question truthfully. I did so, feeling as though this might have been a bad idea, after all.
The two men sitting in the chairs facing me both wore the stars of Generals, the younger man sitting to my left with only one star, his older companion wearing four. The younger man was polite and respectful in his questions, and when I told him of the other groups we had encountered he smiled privately to himself over so many more people managing to make it through the first few months than he had ever dared hope.
The older general, however, was far more of a hard-arse. He insisted that we were now property of the Army, soldiers in his cause. I chose to hold my tongue rather than argue the point. I did ask, however, that since our group worked so well together if we would be able to continue, the younger general instantly agreeing. His elder grumbled quietly about this, but allowed it. I also requested that we be allowed to keep The Nightmare. The older man looked up, saying that he had already granted it to The Colonel when she had asked, and as far as he was concerned it was her property now. Also, since she was the only member of our group to have been part of the military before the Dead began wandering around, she was to be in charge.
I was handed my weapons back, then taken to a small tent that had been allocated to our little group. The Nightmare stood proudly beside it, looking menacing. Apocalypse Girl sat alone within the tent, fretting slightly, until she saw me and smiled. The Colonel came in a moment later, and Apocalypse Girl stood to attention, saluting her sarcastically. Sister and Firecracker came in following a fuming Redbeard. He wasn't happy about having been conscripted, but then neither was I, or any of us.
evening
Sitting around the campfire next to our tent, we introduced ourselves to our neighbours, only to be greeted with scorn and contempt. Apparently we were not expected to last very long. Patrol duty would be allocated to us within a few days, apparently, and the raw recruits always get the shittiest assignments. The Colonel had been summoned to a meeting with other officers, and when she returned her expression was grim. The older general, had decided that since there were other groups of survivors in large numbers, they should also be “brought into the fold” whether they accept it or not. I had a hard time imagining The Mech-Techs simply rolling over and joining because some old man in a uniform wanted them to. The Principal would object as well, probably to the detriment of his people.
Then there were The Followers. They would be trouble no matter what happened. If they joined up willingly, in fact, they might even be worse, and their philosophy could spread through the ranks. If they resisted, they had numbers enough and were well enough armed to be a serious problem as well.
I told The Colonel that this general was a complete fuckwit if he thought this plan was any good. Nodding her agreement, she nevertheless said “We are under his command, no matter what we might think of him.” She then went on to say that she had met privately with the younger general, who was far more reasonable, but even he said there was no changing his elder's mind when it was set on a task. Shit.
March 31 Year 1 A.Z.
morning
The snow beat down on us relentlessly this morning. The Colonel had been in meetings with senior staff since before dawn, and she had just returned. General Fuckwit had decided that we were going to march on Melbourne, leaving in maybe a week's time. She had been told that we would be needed in the vanguard, because of our vehicle, The Nightmare. General Practical had tried to reason with his superior once more, but General Fuckwit had set his sights on, of all people, The Mech-Techs first of all. His plan was, after wiping them out or forcing them to join us, to negotiate with The Followers. The Colonel said the word through clenched teeth. She had tried to tell them a little about what The Followers were like only to be told to remain silent if she wished to avoid a court-martial.
Glancing around at the other faces in our tent, I felt fairly certain that the others felt as I did, that maybe we just didn't quite belong here. How we were going to get out, though, that was the real kicker.
noon
Redbeard had been out among the other troopers, trying to get some idea of exactly how the men were feeling about everything. Many of them couldn't wait to move out, just so that they're doing something, an attitude I totally understood. On the other hand, however, many of them also were resistant to the idea of taking on a large force of well-armed Living people. Putting the Dead down made sense, putting down anybody infected and about to turn also made sense. Killing the Living who wanted nothing more than to live in peace made no sense whatsoever.
That was the dominant viewpoint amongst the local tents and campfires, at least. There seemed little to no reasoning with General Fuckwit, but perhaps we might just be able to get away and warn them. The Colonel mentioned at one point over lunch that she now totally understood what The Principal had been driving at when he said he wanted no military influence in his territory. The worst part of it was that she clearly felt guilty. She had been the first of us to tell them about the different factions living amongst the ruins of Melbourne, but all of us had confirmed it.
evening
We sat together after our evening meal, just Apocalypse Girl and I, atop the roof of The Nightmare. It was one of the few places in camp where we actually felt like we were alone, at least as long as we didn't listen too closely or look down.
She held my hands in both of hers, looking into my eyes. “We have to get the fuck out of here, as soon as we possibly can,” She began, “I don't care about the others, just you and me, we need to get out of here, and back to The School, warn them, get them out of Melbourne too.” She was close to tears. I told her that with any luck, if we're careful we might be able to do a lot of good from the inside here anyway.
She shook her head, and this time the tears began to flow. “You don't understand, though,” She took a deep breath to steady herself, then with a look of abject terror on her face said “I think I might be pregnant...”
Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 3): March Page 9
