Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 7): July

by Dave Rowlands

Disciple was beginning to stir. Doctor said that Redbeard wasn't going to make it unless we got some equipment in immediately. Soon enough we were going to be in a cell with a fairly large Dead man. Not a one of us were armed. Disciple began to snigger, holding up his walking stick, before sliding is across the hall to our cell. “It has a safety, the left fang.” I picked it up, for the first time actually looking at it. The handle was silver, a large cobra's head. Fitting for a snake like Disciple. I snapped the left fang back and the blade slipped free. “I want it back, remember,”

  noon

  As we waited for Redbeard to die The Twin continued her tale. Evidently this place was in the Dead infested ruins of old Brisbane, a former police station that The Enigmatic Man had shown The Twin yesterday. They had taken a reasonable security force out with them, she said, though not all of them had returned. There were still large groups of Dead swarming all over, one of which had nearly accounted for their entire group.

  The idea was that anybody locked up in this place was not ever going to be released. On the off-chance that they could get out, there was the city full of Dead to contend with. The Twin told us that this mysterious woman known as The Enigmatic Man occupied a large building nearby. “Good. We can still kill the bitch.” Disciple snarled when he heard that news. I reminded him that we still needed to get out of here first.

  “It is time,” Doctor said, indicating Redbeard as he drew in his final breath. He exhaled, blowing a large blood-bubble as he did so. A moment later, almost without thinking about it, I drove Disciple's slender blade into my friend's skull.

  “What are you...?” Disciple stammered as Tiny wiggled her miniature frame between the bars of their cell. Holding her hand out for his sword, she told me that she would find the keys and release us all. Without thinking, still staring at Redbeard's lifeless corpse I handed it to her.

  As she sped down the hall Disciple asked me if I just gave away the last weapon to the least trustworthy one of the group very often. The Twin slapped the back of his head for me, telling him that Tiny would be back.

  evening

  Tiny still hasn't come back yet. Disciple has been on an 'I told you so' rant for about the last half-hour, despite being told to shut up by every single one of us, repeatedly and at great length. The Twin was able to get him to be quiet with another slap just now. Viking has been trying to move or bend every bar within reach, with no success so far. The sun is on its way down, we can see the shadows dancing high on the walls. The worst part of it is that this is my first day without food in longer than I can remember. My stomach does, however.

  A noise at the far end of the hall got everybody's attention. A moment later, Tiny slid silently into view, handing me back Disciple's blade. “I found some food and weapons for everybody, sorry for being so long.” She unlocked first the door to the cell that we shared with Redbeard's corpse, then turned to the cell containing Disciple and The Twin.

  She led us out from the cells, up a flight of stairs and into an already heavily barricaded office. Once there she tossed a police baton to everybody, as well as handing us each a pistol and some ammunition. “We're in a police station, after all. Weapons were the easy part. I figured that since nobody had eaten since yesterday that we needed food as well, so I went shopping.”

  Feasting on the canned and preserved meats and fruits that she had found for us we debated long and hard as to what our next move should be. I wondered briefly where Jarhead was, why he hadn't been in the cells with us. Disciple asked Tiny if she had encountered many Dead in the police station, to which she shook her head. The supermarket where she had found our dinner, however, was heavily infested.

  July 4th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  After an uneasy night spent very aware of our precarious situation, resulting in little to no sleep, Tiny and The Twin went out to scout, see where we were, how we were likely to get back to where we were two days ago, and where this Enigmatic Man/Woman was holed up. Doctor made himself busy checking over everybody's wounds, most of which were superficial, while Viking and I talked with Disciple, trying to think up some way out of this fucking mess we had found ourselves in.

  It was not long before Tiny returned with the news that The Twin had found Waitress and was following her back, hopefully, to the location of her employer. We were to meet her on the roof of the supermarket across the road. That, unfortunately, meant wading through a virtual sea of the Dead. Viking and I led, batons whacking Dead heads left and right, splattering walls and people, Living and Dead alike, with decomposing brain matter.

  In short order we made it to the rear of the supermarket, Tiny opening the door leading to a small stairway at the back of the building that led to an almost Dead-free alleyway. We scurried up the ladder attached to the side of the supermarket, Viking holding the base of the ladder, clobbering any Dead that drew too near into oblivion.

  From the rooftops we could see the devastation that had once been the city of Brisbane. Buildings that should have stood tall and proud lay slumped against one another, their bases and foundations having been compromised, suffering significant structural damage when the Dead first rose, or rather when the Living of Brisbane had begun to fight back. More than a few of them seemed to have had access to military grade hardware. Many of the smaller buildings were more or less intact, such as this very supermarket or the police station in which we had spent the night. All of the larger ones, at least of those that I could see, were destroyed.

  Dead swarmed about the streets below us, those that were already aware of our presence drawing the attention of many more. Vividly I recalled the utter destruction that a large enough group of these walking nightmares could cause. Just as I was about to say to Viking that we needed to do something to control the size of this rapidly growing throng someone in the distance screamed. Almost as one organism the entire group of Dead lumbered off in the direction of the sound.

  A moment later a scrabbling sound could be heard below. “Don't shoot me!” A young lad with a shock of spiky red hair popped his head up over the top of the ladder to greet Viking's pistol staring directly into one of his eyes. “I've got a message from your friend!”

  noon

  The Twin had found The Enigmatic Man's lair, Youngster told us. She had been making use of a small office building a few blocks away. However, on her way back to us The Twin had been waylaid by a reasonably large group of Dead and twisted an ankle fairly badly in her efforts to escape. She was resting with a couple of other members of his group, he said, one of whom had been studying medicine, but they could use a real doctor, just to show him a couple of things.

  Doctor wanted nothing more than to be back in Melbourne, at The School, yet he knew when he was needed and immediately offered his services. Youngster brightened at that, thanking him profusely. He pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt, speaking into it quietly. A few seconds later another scream sounded from across the ruined city. “They are attracted to any sound, really, but we discovered that when you need them to really haul arse, scream like you're in pain. I've seen them ignore someone who was lying in front of them, bleeding, to go for a screamer.” The expression on his face was grave. “We use it to clear the roads so we can get about.”

  He swung his legs over the edge of the roof, telling us to follow him and to keep up. He set a reasonable pace through the rubble strewn streets of the city, though we had no trouble following him. The only Dead that we saw was one straggler hustling in its own limping fashion towards the sound of the scream, and another that was having trouble moving due to the truck that had rolled over it, ending its Life. The second one Viking put down as we passed it.

  Eventually we came to a ruined bookshop. One of the rare ones that doubles as a sort of café, that encouraged customers to stay and read their purchases with a cup of cheap, nasty coffee. The windows had been boarded up to buggery and back again, the door heavily reinforced but movable. As we went through, Youngster pulled a heavy bookshelf across the door,
blocking all access.

  Youngster led us deeper into the building, up a flight of stairs that were easily blocked by a nearby dresser and wardrobe, manned by a pair of sentries that were ready to pull the furniture across at a moment's notice. I noticed others around as we went further in, kids for the most part, in small groups of two or three to a room, all the doors removed for barricades downstairs.

  “We didn't have anybody looking out for us when all this went down, so we had to make do.” Youngster was saying as he led us through his domain. “Probably not as good as you guys are used to, am I right?” I told him that his set-up compared quite well with some that I had seen. He beamed, his face turning almost as red as his hair. “We were all orphans, street kids, runaways and troublemakers. Fuck, for most of us, life hasn't changed that much. Winter was a bit early and a bit fucking Cold, but...”

  He continued leading us down a long hallway. The doorway at the end was well-lit and inviting. Warm-looking, even. Youngster stopped a few paces short, turning around to face us once again. “Okay, look. You seem like reasonable people for the most part. I can't let you leave here, though. We've all survived because those sick fuckers in New Brisbane don't know about us. That Japanese woman sometimes likes to kidnap some of us and hunt us for sport, just to kill something with her fucking sword.” I told him that I had personally made sure she wasn't going to be able to do anything like that again. He looked genuinely sorry. “If you guys are useful, which I suspect you are, you can stay here with us. It's not a bad life here, really, we've got access to a pretty big food stash, we've got some pretty decent weapons. Not a lot of guns, though.”

  I told him that we weren't his enemies, we wouldn't let anything slip to anyone from The Empire. He shook his head, saying that he just couldn't afford to take that risk. Then he led us into the room before us. True to his word, The Twin lay on a couch being treated by his medical student friend. Doctor immediately rushed to her side, taking over from the nervous young man.

  evening

  Youngster brought us our food personally, staying with us while we ate. “How is she?” He indicated The Twin. Doctor told him that she would be fine, she just needed some time off her feet. He smiled. “I'm glad. I really don't want any bad feelings between us, you understand that don't you?” I told him that was all well and good but we had friends elsewhere that we needed to get back to.

  “Why not help us, then? Help us get back to our people, at least.” Viking's voice grated with the effort of speaking politely to the little bastard. “I've got someone just south of the city with a vehicle, ready to take us back to Melbourne. She's been expecting us back for at least a couple of days now and I really don't know how much longer she's going to keep waiting.” If Valkyrie was waiting for us, she'd wait forever, pacing back and forth, ranting the entire time about what an unreliable bastard Viking was. Eventually she might decide she'd been waiting long enough that she's going to kill him though...

  Youngster seemed to consider it for a moment. “Think it over, at least.” Viking told him. The red-headed kid nodded. He seemed almost on the verge of speaking again, then he turned and left. A moment later, Apocalypse Girl's phone jangled. Scanning the message I learned that she and Machete, together with Scout and Sonny, had made it to Dragon's Lair and were holing up there with The Colonel and a number of her soldiers. Our military ally hadn't abandoned her plans to use Alice Facility as a permanent headquarters, though the loss of almost half of her considerable forces was quite a nasty setback. Immune to the infection from the bites of the Dead they may be, true enough. Immune to being shredded by mutant Dingoes and barbecued by goannas-turned-Dragons they most certainly were not.

  I told Apocalypse Girl all of our latest news, from the betrayal of Waitress to the escape from one prison to land in another. At least in this second one, however, they planned on feeding us.

  July 5th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Youngster came to us again this morning, pleading his case. He actually seemed a good kid, for the most part, but for his insistence that we had to stay. I told him to go and fuck himself, however, almost before anything came out of his mouth. The only reason, I told him, that we were even in this shithole of a city was because we had been fucked over by the last remaining Boss after taking out the other two and a snivelling little turd like him was not going to prevent us from busting out of here through him and his orphans if need be.

  He was pissed off, that much was obvious. To his credit, though, he took a deep breath, then told us that some of his kids were missing. Taken from this very building in the night. There was only one person that might do something like that and we were already planning on killing her, he said, so why didn't we work together. I told him to go and blow a goat. Viking told him that we should be able to come to some kind of arrangement. His Royal Red-headedness then deigned to allow us to leave should we help him out. I told him that fine, we would help him. But I still want him to blow a goat.

  The Twin was able to hobble about a little bit, though actually taking us out to the building that she had seen Waitress going into was out of the question, she described it in detail. Youngster and his freckle-faced equally red-headed girlfriend nodded eagerly, saying that they knew exactly where it was. Tiny, meanwhile, was investigating the room that the trio of kids had vanished from.

  Disciple took me aside, saying that he understood how I felt about working with these kids, he didn't much like it either, but if it gets the job done and we can leave afterwards, then we should do whatever we can. I told him that it was all his fucking fault that I was in this bullshit mess and that he could blow a goat as well. Viking, overhearing the last part as he stalked past, impatiently pacing back and forth, burst into laughter.

  noon

  Youngster, Freckle, Tiny, Viking and I silently crouched on the roof of a service station across the road from The Enigmatic Man's office building. Viking was looking the building over through a pair of binoculars, trying to get some idea of what might lie within. He confirmed that Waitress was indeed inside, saying that he could see her wandering around the ground floor. Of the kids, there was no sign.

  Youngster spoke into his walkie-talkie for a moment, then a loud scream erupted from a few streets away, drawing the few, scattered nearby Dead away. Quietly the five of us dropped to the road below and made for the front door.

  Waitress didn't turn as we slipped in silently behind her. I saw that she held the blade that Machete had given me in one hand, covered in bright red blood. Fresh blood. The Dead don't have blood like that. She staggered to one side and the machete clattered to the floor, released from her limp hand. I could see a large chunk of flesh missing from her forearm, realising that the woman was Dead a mere second before Tiny smashed her skull to pieces. I picked up the machete, handing my baton to Freckle.

  We made certain that the ground floor was clear before heading upstairs, though there was absolutely nothing at all for the first four floors. All of the rooms had been emptied, the furniture removed, the doors taken down and away. The fifth floor, however, we discovered why. Some twisted mind had set up the furniture and doors, office partitions and desks and chairs as a maze.

  “Stick close to me,” Viking told us all, leading the way into the dark maze of chair legs and office doors. Around the second corner he had to bash the brains out of one Dead and already we could hear the shuffling of another. The second he allowed to shamble towards him, hammering it to the floor with his baton, emptying the skull of all contents.

  Several more Dead awaited in the depths of the maze of office equipment, though several of those were paying us no heed whatsoever. Rather, their attention was taken by the sound of the generator running on the far side of the building. As we shattered their skulls we debated our next move. Disciple and the kids were all in favour of continuing, though any arguments that I might have had evaporated when the sounds of a small child whimpering came from the next room, the one with the generator.

&
nbsp; Bursting through the door, the first thing that I saw was the cage in the middle of the room containing the three kids. Behind them stood a woman in a white coat, short cropped hair and tiny, round glasses. “Welcome.” She said. “I hear that you are the ones responsible for the deaths of my two partners.” A slight smile touched her lips. Only her lips. “Take another step towards me and the children die, by the way.” She motioned, indicating the floor at our feet. The next step that Viking took would take him onto a pressure plate, from beneath which led a pair of wires running to the cage. He swore.

  Without a word, Tiny took the machete from me, stalking backwards as far as the maze allowed. The rest of us moved well out of the way when we realised what was going on, and she flew back along the corridor, leaping with all her might once she reached the pressure plate. Landing lightly on the other side, she sliced the wires neatly with the machete before throwing the blade into the chest of The Enigmatic Man/Woman. She died with an expression of utter disbelief on her face. Youngster and Freckle ran to the cage, opening it and freeing their charges.

  evening

  The Twin was, she felt, ready to travel as long as we planned on leaving Brisbane, New and Ruined. I nodded, saying that was indeed the plan. Disciple began to speak, but I shut him down, saying that he had requested my help with three bullies, just like he had helped me once. We were done, as far as I was concerned. Fair enough, he told me, but he wanted to leave Ruined Brisbane with me at least. Safety in numbers was the reason he gave me.