Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 8): August

by Dave Rowlands

  I told her to stay calm, just relax, and I'd see about getting her the fuck out of here as soon as I can. “I've already got a key that fits the cell door, you know.” She told me. “Plucked it right out of the lock, there,” She pointed. “I only hope nobody else needs it, wherever I took it from. The problem is, there's too fucking many guards. We're going to need a distraction of some kind. Something big.”

  evening

  I spent as much time with Apocalypse Girl as I dared, then returned to my office. Butler was waiting for me, several sheets of paper in his hands. “Your visit with The Master was fruitful, I see,” He began. “The proposal he sent with you, about the airport... I have spoken with Her Majesty on the subject. She agrees that it would be useful, and the walls to the north certainly need to be reinforced. Rebuilt entirely, in some places. If it weren't for the city wall itself, there might be some Dead breaking through in places.”

  Yawning, I told him that I'd prefer to talk more tomorrow. He nodded, then went on. “There have been reports of some strange sounds in the night, though. A weird sort of howling shriek. So far nobody knows what might have caused it, some people seem to think it merely a trick of the wind. In any case, I thought you'd want to know.”

  At that moment, the faintest echoes of a sound reached my ears through the open window. Butler nodded, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one finger. “That'd be the sound, then?” I asked him. He nodded. “Fuck.” I recognised the sounds. The shriek-howling of mutated Dingoes. I thought I heard screaming mixed in with it, somewhere. Fucking wonderful.

  August 21st Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  I woke up to a massive commotion. Jester and Butler were shouting at one another in the hallway outside of my office, where I had been “working late” in order to avoid another embarrassing night with The Queen. When I stuck my head out to ask what the fuck was going on, the pair were both obviously relieved.

  “Something got through the north wall in the night, Sheriff.” Butler began. “Whatever it was tore apart several of the farming families as they were coming home from a days work. They've just been put down with minimal losses. A couple of the Guards were bitten, but they've been taken care of as well.”

  Deathwish came running along the passageway, calling me by name. “Dude! I'm glad I found you. I've got a message for you, from a couple of old mates.” Butler wandered off, looking stunned at the news of Dingo-related butchery. “The Master sends his greetings. He heard what happened when you guys got back to town and he wants to help.”

  “Unless he can sneak some of his people through the underground tunnel network into the facility underneath the Palace and bust her out, I don't see what he can do.” Jester mentioned, casually. Deathwish shrugged. “Even then, he'd have to hide her from The Queen, which might not be so easy to do. If he can do all that, tell him to take me as well, yeah?”

  noon

  The Queen wanted to have lunch with me, alone. I didn't much like the idea, but I figured that it was probably better to play along, at least for now. She told me that she's not forbidding any of our group to visit with Apocalypse Girl, though she's still planning on having her killed once she gives birth. If she had a competent surgeon, she was telling me, it wouldn't have been so much of a big deal. She would simply have had my child cut from Apocalypse Girl, in that case. It wasn't so much what she was saying that had me on edge, after that... No, it was more the way she had been saying it. As though a common, every day practice, like mowing the lawn or washing the dishes.

  After a while, though, the conversation turned once more to security. She had heard of the Dingoes and their slaughter of her subjects, and she was not amused. “If we can't protect our farmers, why should they continue to farm for us?” was the question she raised. “The Master's idea, the airport? Do it. I need you to go into that fucking place that killed my former Sheriff, clean it out and get me a replacement north wall.”

  evening

  Visiting with Apocalypse Girl, I told her about the Dingoes and The Queen's orders to infiltrate and cleanse the airport. She settled into my arms. “Don't get yourself killed, whatever happens to me, okay?” I looked into her eye, promised to get her out of this place. “If you have to, just get free of her, alright? I can take care of myself. I'd prefer not to have to, obviously, but if it comes down to it, leave me here. Promise me you'll do that!”

  After a couple of hours spent with her, The Queen sent for me. The messenger left no doubt as to Her Majesty's royal intentions, I only hoped for continued impotence.

  August 22nd Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Fortunately for me, a certain monthly occurrence took Her Majesty's attention away from breeding with her new Sheriff, so I took the chance to visit with Apocalypse Girl. The layout of this facility was much like any other we had visited, so I was able to make my way around without an escort. The guards, knowing full well who I was, let me in without too much trouble, just the promise of a good word with The Queen.

  “About time you got here!” Apocalypse Girl exclaimed, leaping into my arms as I entered her cell. “I get kinda bored sitting here all by myself, you know...” I told her that I was doing everything that I could to try and get her out of here. “No need, really. I'm well looked after here, you know...” She mouthed the words 'they're listening' during the pause. “And I think that, as long as we both cooperate, The Queen should calm down. I hope she calms down enough to let me back out, but in here at least I get decent food!”

  We spent the majority of the morning together, until Jester, dressed as a puppy today, came for me. As I looked into Apocalypse Girl's eye one for one final moment, Jester told me quietly that Deathwish might have come up with a plan to get her out.

  “It all revolves around those bloody mutant Dingoes. If they attack tonight, we can use the distraction to spring your girl and get her to safety.” Jester smiled the whole way back to my office, where Deathwish waited.

  “Hey, man,” The leather clad lunatic with his ever-present, never-ending bag of baked beans greeted me. “Shorty here tell you the plan?” I nodded. “Cool. I won't bore you with any details, let's just say that she'll be with friends after this. Get her out first, then you a couple of days later.”

  noon

  Spending the rest of the morning examining the damage that the Dingoes had caused during their attack, I realised that it was mostly superficial. For now. I had seen firsthand the sort of devastation that these motherfuckers could cause, it made the single gaping hole in the chain-link seem hardly worth bothering with.

  It had been shored up well enough for now, but the sentries and scouts all agreed on one thing; there would be another incursion tonight. I ordered double guards on the northern wall, making certain that everybody knew where they were meant to be if, and when, the attack came. I shared with them what little knowledge I had of these Dingoes, though that amounted to little. They are fucking massive and they take a fuck-ton of bullets to kill was what it amounted to.

  evening

  The attack came about an hour and a half after sundown. The shriek-howling that preceded the Dingoes' assault was deafening, even in my office. I grabbed my sword from the mantle, seeing Jester and Deathwish vanishing into the underground facility on my way out.

  Butler was attempting to manage the chaos in the streets as Dingoes by the hundreds overran Adelaide. People swarmed together, trying to get somewhere safe as the guards blasted away at anything and everything moving faster or slower than a human should. Messy torsoes clawed their Dead way towards Living victims in an attempt to get to fresh flesh before the Dingoes, the guards trying to save as many as they could.

  One massive beast sailed over my head, instinctively I brought my katana up and around, bathing me in a shower of Dingo-giblets as the tip sliced open the thing. It fell, mere centimetres away, tail whipping in a fury as it died. Another I saw leap on top of Butler before another deafening shriek-howl took my attention.

&nbs
p; Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw Jester and Deathwish come out of the Casino-Palace, a third figure swathed in blankets between them. My attention was once more drawn by the howling shriek. Following the noise I discovered a Dingo nearly twice as large as the rest of the pack. It shriek-howled, a contingent of Dingoes ran here, killed that bunch of people. The noise sounded again, subtly different this time. The pack returned to guard its General.

  I grabbed the attention of a pair of nearby guards, pointing the General Dingo out to them, naming it as a priority target. They nodded in unison then ran about for a moment, gathering as many allies as they could. Then, the five guards and I ran in to battle, timing our assault so that we struck immediately after it had sent its own defenders out into combat.

  Two of my guards were armed with simple spears, good only for distracting the General while the other three took pot-shots from behind cover and I danced around it with my blade, slicing deep into the thing's flesh at any available opening. It reared up in pain as my katana sliced deeply along one of its forelegs, the spears of my companions biting deep into its torso.

  With a deafening shriek-howl of rage and terror the General swiped downwards, snapping both spears. It fell, heavily, driving the embedded points of both weapons deep. It breathed heavily, trying to rear up once again, failing, lacking the strength. Blood bubbled up between the General's massive teeth as it looked into my eyes. Its head fell to the ground, severed neatly by a single blow of my katana. I didn't even register the fact that I had swung the bloody thing.

  With their General dead, the rest of the Dingoes fled, over the north wall and into the darkness, leaving the rest of us to clean up the mess.

  August 23rd Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  It wasn't until late last night, staggering back into the Casino-Palace of The Queen, that I even noticed the gash running up my leg that had lacerated my thigh. Butler had calmly pointed out that I was bleeding as he assisted another couple of wounded people inside when the attack had died out. As it was, I ended up spending the rest of the night in the underground facility's medical bay being sewn up with the rest of the evening's casualty list.

  Because I was unable to ascertain precisely what had happened, I was kept under supervision at least until dawn, when I was discharged. The Queen herself came to gather me and bring me back to her nest. Wonderful.

  Jester, dressed as a chicken this morning, entertained us as we ate our breakfast, sharing a conspiratorial wink with me as Butler droned on about the damage caused in last night's attack. The Queen was more interested in how quickly the walls could be repaired, which Butler said would be far easier with the promised scrap from the airport. The next question from Her Majesty's lips was easy enough to guess. “How soon do you think you can be ready to tackle the airport?” Her voice was as sweet as ever.

  I was already ready. I only needed the right people. As fate would have it, they were just now being shown through. I practically tore my stitches out in my haste to greet my old friends Viking and Valkyrie as they were presented to The Queen as ambassadors from The School. I had completely forgotten that they were on their way. An unasked question hovered around Valkyrie's lips, she glanced around looking for Apocalypse Girl. I shook my head ever so slightly, she stopped. They'll find out everything in due time.

  noon

  The crew was together again, at last, sipping coffee in my office. When Viking heard about The Queen disfiguring Apocalypse Girl the way she had, he was just about ready to explode. I told him that it was all under control, she was safe. Valkyrie scratched Apocalypse Dog idly on the head as her husband paced back and forth. We were meant to be planning the airport job, but that was relatively simple. Go in, redecorate in a shade of splattered Dead brains, let The Queen and The Master know.

  Instead, we spoke in hushed tones about how to spirit Apocalypse Girl out of The Master's Fortress, where to go after that. Deathwish had assured us all that she was perfectly safe, that The Master would not hold her for his own nefarious purposes, and that she'd be among the group that The Master would be sending out to assist at the airport tomorrow afternoon. In the end, it was agreed; we would leave in the morning. It would likely take us much of the day to walk there, after all.

  evening

  After a nourishing dinner of roast chicken and vegetables, the latter fresh picked from one of the outlying farms that hadn't been destroyed by dingoes, Viking and I walked the streets of Adelaide alone, Apocalypse Dog trotting along with us, talking quietly about events since New Brisbane. Valkyrie had wanted to catch up with the girls, leaving us to our own devices. My blonde giant friend still carried his enormous hammer, casually swinging it about as we walked.

  It was not precisely a patrol, just that I needed to stretch my stiffening, injured leg somewhat. The guards were out in force, after hearing a single shriek-howl way off in the distance. Wherever they were, the pack that had come from up north were in a different area of their new territory tonight.

  “The real question is, what are you going to do when you meet up with her?” Viking was saying. “I guarantee you won't be safe here, not anymore. In any case, she won't be. So, what, hole up with this other bloke down south? The Master, you call him? I reckon The Queen will find out soon enough that you're there and that'll be the end of that. Either it'll mean war between the two factions or else, and this is more likely, this Master fella will just throw you to the wolves. Or the dingoes, as the case may be.”

  He was right, naturally. I asked him what he thought we should do. “Dude, we're heading into an airport. A fucking airport! If we can find a plane that's still relatively intact... fuel her up... we can just fly away. Wherever the fuck we want!” Apocalypse Dog, who had until that moment been quietly keeping pace alongside the pair of us, barked happily in agreement.

  August 24th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Waking up alone in the bed that I had been, until the last few days at least, sharing with Apocalypse Girl was not a sensation I was really wanting to experience very often. This morning was the worst so far, as I rolled over, expecting to be looking right into both of her eyes as I did so. I don't really like starting my days angry.

  My team awaited me outside the Casino-Palace, Tiny and Machete, Scout and Apprentice, Viking and Valkyrie, Deathwish, The Twin, even little Jester. Apocalypse Dog barked at them as we approached. Butler hurried out, telling me that there was a slight change of plans. They knew who had let the dingoes into the city, he told me, they had him.

  I wondered what that had to do with me, until he told me that as Sheriff, I was expected to be The Queen's Hand of Justice, or some such bollocks. The Queen herself awaited me with a gentle smile, saying that without me, without Justice, her city would fall to chaos and anarchy within a week. Her former Sheriff had taught her that, she told me, keeping a hand on my arm as we walked to the square in the middle of the city, where the condemned awaited.

  Butler read out a list of charges, mostly endangering the city and people of Adelaide, the condemned had apparently left a gate open and an entire pack of dingoes had gotten in. This, I felt, was unlikely, considering the fact that fences and walls had been knocked down by the infernal beasts. They brought him out, wearing a hood. Reaching out, Butler whipped the hood away. There before me stood Elder, smiling broadly as usual.

  Butler asked him if he had any final words. Elder said that indeed he did, but that they were for my ears alone. If I felt that the city of Adelaide needed to know what he had to tell me, he said, that was up to me. So, we were given about as much privacy as we were able; everybody took a couple of steps back.

  “I saw this in a dream, mate, it'll be alright. I didn't let the dingoes in, but I did lead the pack here. I saw your missus, saw what she was going to put her through.” He jerked his head in the direction of The Queen. “Besides, you know me well enough... Strike me down and I'll become more powerful than you can imagine, mate! Don't worry, it's all going to be fine. Goodbye fo
r now, good friend. You'll see me again one day.”

  Then, without saying anything further, I drew my katana. Elder nodded once, do it, before kneeling and placing his head on the block. His head fell into the bucket below before I even registered the fact that I had swung my sword, then his body, head and all, seemed to vanish in a puff of steam. All that remained was his white robe, now stained red with Elder's blood, and his thongs, graven with the image of Elder's gnarled feet.

  noon

  We walked. For hours, now we had been walking, after taking the western exit from Adelaide, we walked until my leg could cope no more, then we sat until it could cope again. Then, we walked. Viking bitched about it the entire way, saying that The Queen had to own every vehicle that came into the city, otherwise we could have been driving. His complaints brought a few Dead down upon us, but nothing that we couldn't handle.

  Where these occasional Dead sprang from I couldn't say, but The Queen had seemed certain that every single one of them had been dealt with, at least in the immediate area. Then again, she didn't go out on these runs. She had told me that she'd wait for me once again, though I told her not to. Some part of her, deep down in the depths of her soul, knew that I would not be coming back.