Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 7): July

by Dave Rowlands

  A voice came from nowhere, demanding that we tell either them the password or be riddled with bullets. Jarhead, confidently, shouted back that we would have arrived sooner, but we had been delayed by Drop-Bears. “Come on through, and welcome home!” came the reply.

  Valkyrie nestled The Tortoise between the tank and a couple of jeeps and we all but threw ourselves out. Several of The Colonel's troops greeted us all warmly, welcoming us back into their ranks as old companions. As we were marched inside the exterior of the base, the standard set-up with buildings up top, a ridiculously large complex expanding below, I saw some familiar faces. Sister sitting beside Machete, who bore my sword.

  Beside the two of them already standing, then running, to greet me, was Apocalypse Girl. She was such a beautiful sight that it brought tears to my eyes. Larger than when I had left her at Alice Facility, it was now evident to the world that she was pregnant. We wrapped our arms around one another and just stood there. In time I came to realise that everybody else had left. We were alone.

  evening

  Apocalypse Girl showed me to the rooms that she shared with Sister and Machete, first insisting that I needed a shower, wrinkling her nose in disgust, then insisting on joining me. A while later, we lay together in bed. Her hair had grown, nearly down to her shoulders once more. When I asked her, after some time of comfortable silence, who the other person was that had tried to contact her, she stiffened. “I can't tell you that, not right now.”

  Just as I was about to pry further, Sister put her head through the doorway, informing us that dinner was now ready. “It's damn good to see you again,” Sister told me, Machete echoing the sentiment just below her, “In case you didn't hear me say it the first time...” The pair were all smiles.

  “Hey, before we go,” Machete began, “You've got something that belongs to me,” I pulled her blade from my belongings, piled up beside Apocalypse Girl's bed, handing it to the girl. Beaming, she ran to her own room, returning an instant later to hand me my katana. As I tied the sword to my belt I felt more myself than I had for a while.

  Entering the dining hall, it seemed almost empty. The Colonel, upon seeing me, stood and saluted, smiling, before welcoming me and telling me to sit with her. The Smart Couple sat at the same table, both beaming widely as we sat down. Over dinner, I was told that in the Depths of Alice Facility, perhaps Dragon's Lair as well, there were snakes. Thousands, perhaps millions of them. When the winter had hit, Smart Guy surmised, they had gone underground to hibernate. However, many of them had managed to find their way into the warmer tunnels of some of the underground facilities and many of these had begun to mutate, growing to enormous sizes.

  The Colonel told me of the losses her men had sustained in the field up north. It had not been pretty. Dingoes and Dragons were formidable opponents, Drop-Bears an irritant by comparison that had, nevertheless, taken many of her soldiers as well. The Dead were not even anything she considered a serious threat any more, though she still maintained they need to be exterminated.

  After we had eaten, I took Apocalypse Girl topside, showing her The Tortoise. “I wish we'd had something like this in the early days,” she said, wistfully. “Fuck, it would have made the trip to Canberra a little more comfortable, at the very least.” We climbed to the platform up top. I told her, then, of Doctor's bite wound and Elder's sudden appearance, of the House Where No House Should Be. Then I pulled Elder's present from my top pocket, asking her if she had a light. She smiled.

  July 16th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  After a late night spent with Apocalypse Girl, we finally appeared late morning to grab a bite to eat. The overall feel of Sydney Base was similar to that of The Think Tank, safety with a hefty dash of desperation. We all knew that the safety of this underground facility was relative, more illusory than actual. However, for most of us it was a sweet reunion, the rest were able to meet new friends.

  As we appeared in the kitchen searching for some food and caffeine, Machete ran past with an exasperated Scout in full pursuit. At least, until she saw me, at which point she tackled me with an unexpected bear hug that nearly knocked me over. “I heard you were back, you took your sweet fucking time, didn't you?” She smiled while saying it. “Anyway, gotta run!” And she was off.

  “Having a place like this is giving the kids a chance to be themselves,” Apocalypse Girl observed. I asked her where Sonny had gotten to, she told me that he was spending most of his time in the company of one of The Colonel's troopers. She thought of him more as a little brother, at least from the way the pair acted together, but they had spent almost every minute together since they first met. At the very least she was teaching him some how to shoot, among other things.

  “I need to ask you a few questions about Sydney, if you're up to it. You look like you had a rough night!” The Colonel walked in, grabbing a cup and filling it with steaming black liquid ambrosia. Following her example I sat with her while Apocalypse Girl prepared a plate of pancakes.

  The questions were relatively easily answered, other than the ones that I couldn't say anything about, such as how we ended up outside the Shadowzone, or the nature of the entities that lived within. The Colonel nodded as I spoke, telling me that she had sent a couple of parties of scouts inside. They had reported blackness all around before being transported outside, in every case but one. The first man she had sent in had simply vanished without any trace.

  Apprentice joined us as we ate, asking The Colonel if she could talk to her troops and offer some words of wisdom, maybe see if any of them wanted to learn the Healing Arts. The Colonel told her she was welcome to do so though if any wanted to leave they'd have to clear it with her first. Then, my old friend grabbed some coffee herself, offering to refill my cup for me before taking The Colonel's recently vacated seat. It truly scared me how well she got on with Apocalypse Girl.

  noon

  I grabbed a sniper rifle from the armoury when the alarm was raised. A relatively large horde of Dead approached from the west, not remotely enough to overrun us but a threat that had to be dealt with nonetheless. My presence was not exactly necessary, nor was I really a particularly good shot with a rifle, but I needed the practice and really, really wanted to kill something. Having an old friend reciting every embarrassing occurrence in my life to the mother-to-be of my as-yet-unborn child is...unsettling.

  Topside, the situation was tense. An occasional shot rang out from snipers on the helipad, so I trotted over in that direction, climbing the stairs two at a time. Unslinging the rifle from my back I looked through the scope, sighting my first soon-to-be-dead Dead. I studied the massed ranks of shambling Death heading in our direction for a moment, a nearby sniper muttering that they should have held them all off rather than running all the way across the fucking country to pick them off one by one. He punctuated his words with gunfire, making Dead heads explode several hundred meters away.

  Seeing just how badly I sucked with my shooting, my fellow helipad snipers gave me a few pointers. Many of those were things that I should have remembered from Archer's early lessons with the bow back at the commune. Some, however, were new. In any case, my aim improved somewhat, and by the time the remaining Dead had been picked off I felt that my practice had been worthwhile.

  evening

  Returning the rifle, I stopped in to see Doctor in the medical wing. He smiled when he saw that I wore my katana once more. Seeing that he wasn't overly busy, just cataloging medical supplies, I asked what he planned to do next. Shaking his head, still smiling, he told me that he just wanted to get back to his wife at The School. I said that was probably the best idea for all of us, now. After that, who knows?

  “There you are!” Apocalypse Girl exploded at me as soon as I walked through her door. “I've been worried sick!” I told her that I just wanted to put down a few Dead when the alarm went out, which took some of the wind out of her sails. “Okay, fine, but you still should have told me.” I told her that I did, but she had been too
busy gossiping about me with Apprentice. She told me that they had ceased all such activity once they noticed I was gone. I asked why exactly that was. “Well, it's not as much fun if you're not there to squirm while we talk about you, is it?”

  Smart Girl's voice called out my name over the intercom, and Apocalypse Girl's, requesting that we see her in the computer lab. Looking at one another for a brief moment, we went, wondering what we were being singled out for this time.

  She turned around, startled, when we all but burst into the computer lab. Seeing that it was only us, Smart Girl sighed and turned back to the screen in front of her. “You guys might want to take a look at this, it's from one of the few remaining surveillance satellites we can still use.” She brought up an image on the main wall screen. It showed a massive horde of Dead, a carpet of Death that had followed us out of Brisbane. “I don't know what might happen if they go into the Shadowzone, but I've been keeping an eye on these guys, they move like they're being controlled somehow. It wouldn't surprise me if they bypass Sydney completely and head straight in our direction.”

  Asking Smart Girl to pull up a few closeup shots of the horde I had to agree. They were moving in ranks, not the standard shambling mess that normally hobbles its way towards potential food. Some looked to be carrying weapons, cricket bats and shovels mainly. One figure at the head of the horde drew my gaze and I pointed him out to Smart Girl. She focused in on the shape and I swore. Disciple.

  July 17th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Waking up with Apocalypse Girl in my arms, I could almost forget the approaching horde of Disciple-led Dead, at least for a moment. Once we roused ourselves, however, after breakfast we ducked into the computer lab to check on their progress. Smart Guy was alone, staring at one of the screens blankly. Apocalypse Girl cleared her throat and he jumped.

  “Shit! You scared me...” He began. Standing, he began to stretch. “I've been in here all night, keeping an eye on your friend.” He nodded in the direction of the computer. Sitting back down, he brought up the image on the main screen. They still marched forward in unison, almost with military precision. How the fuck was Disciple doing that? I wondered.

  “How long til he arrives?” The Colonel asked, closing the door behind her as she entered. Smart Guy shrugged, saying that it will probably be at least another three or four days, unless Disciple wanted to go through the Shadowzone. The very mention of the place sent a chill up my spine.

  I suggested that we should take the fight to him, Apocalypse Girl nodding emphatically as I spoke. The Colonel looked at me studiously. It was almost like she was scouring my brain for some clue as to Disciple's weakness. Eventually, she agreed, saying that she would give the orders to the troops, one more battle with the Dead. She stiffened, turned and stalked out of the lab. The figures on the main screen moved ominously closer with each step they took.

  noon

  I had been staring at Apocalypse Girl's phone for about an hour, examining the photo of the spires around the crater that had once been Sydney. It had been a vastly different experience from the ground, with darkness all around us and liquid Shadows following our every move. This photo from above showed none of the gloom, nor the jet black dome we had seen from the ground. Instead there were shining black spires stabbing out of the earth. Were they the cause of the Shadowzone? Or had they still been in the construction phase when The Smart Couple gazed down from their satellite?

  Smiling from the doorway, one hand on her growing belly, Apocalypse Girl informed me that it was time for lunch. I handed her phone to her and, as we walked, I asked her about the message that she had received from the inordinately long number. “I don't want to talk about it,” was the only reply she gave, though. “Maybe later,”

  Apprentice dined with us, Scout and Machete coming and going while we talked about the 'good old days' before all we had to concern ourselves with was staying alive and uneaten. It turned out that my old friend had been in considerable financial trouble, in fact her entire family had been forced to sell their businesses due to a dwindling economy. In some respects, at least, life had become a lot simpler for her.

  The Colonel had ordered her men out into the field to meet Disciple and his horde of Marching Dead, the Living soldiers having arrived, Smart Girl came running for us, asking us did we want to watch the battle with her in the main computer lab. That was something of a no-brainer, really. I longed to watch my former friend die, I only wished that I could be there to cut him down in person. Instead, I suppose, I'll have to enjoy the sight of The Colonel's men gunning him down like the rabid dog he is.

  evening

  As the sun descended in the west, The Colonel and her men opened fire on Disciple's army of Marching Dead. Casualties were enormous, to begin with, as the front ranks of synchronized shamblers exploded under the onslaught. The sheer weight of numbers took their toll, however, and every second the massed ranks of Dead drew closer. The Colonel began to draw her men back, keeping some distance between them and their slavering foes.

  Most of them obeyed her orders instantly. Those few that did not, however, were overrun and devoured in moments. From high above we could see the blood spurt and sputter, spraying their devourers in fresh red gore. Apocalypse Girl swore. Hearing a noise like wet oatmeal impacting with cement, I turned just in time to see Machete lose her lunch.

  Seeing movement towards the edge of the screen, I pointed it out to Smart Guy who immediately zoomed in on the spot. “Oh no,” Scout moaned. A dozen Dingoes loped towards The Colonel's position. Smart Guy leaped for the radio with a rapidity I had thought impossible, but somehow, Apocalypse Girl got there first and gave The Colonel warning of the approaching mutant threat.

  “Thanks for the heads-up,” The Colonel's voice crackled over the radio, “We might even be able to use it to our advantage,” Seconds later the screen went dark. Everybody in the room jumped.

  “That satellite's just gone dark, switching to the next one. I can have it in position in a few moments...” Smart Guy said, madly punching away at the keyboard. All we could see was Disciple's Marching Band of Doom and Dead before that one, too, went out. He switched to another, with no feed visible at all, then another. “Well, that's it, then. We're dark. There aren't any more surveillance satellites left that we can access.”

  Apocalypse Girl's phone jangled. I looked at the screen, the same incredibly long number as before. The message was simple. Meet me at AR18. Bastards taking down all comms satellites. Take care of yourselves. I handed the phone to her, she looked at me uncomfortably. “I still don't want to talk about it. Besides, we're not going. Fuck that.” She looked almost as scared as I had ever seen her.

  July 18th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Nothing but static on the radio, so we had absolutely no way of knowing what had occurred at the sight of the battle with Disciple's army of the Dead after the Dingoes struck. The general consensus was to wait until morning, hoping to hear from The Colonel or any of her troops, but as there was no contact since the satellites went down we were debating hard all fucking night about the next step to take. After much debate, we decided on taking The Tortoise up to see what had happened.

  Apocalypse Girl's phone was, by now, almost completely useless. Without those tiny, fragile pieces of metal spinning around our planet it would at least function as a light source, but little more. She would still not tell me anything about the mysterious number that had contacted her a couple of times, just that it was someone from her past that should have died with the rest of the world. Her eyes told a different tale, it was someone that she had cared a great deal about, once, and there was relief there, that they were still surviving.

  Viking and Valkyrie occupied the front of The Tortoise, Apocalypse Girl, Machete, Sonny and Scout joining Doctor, Apprentice and I in the sleeping quarters while Jarhead, Tiny and The Twin took the rooftop platform with a few of The Colonel's troops that had been left behind to guard Sydney Base, all armed to the teet
h. We rode in silence.

  noon

  As we drew nearer to the site of the battle, we heard gunfire. Closer again, and more gunfire erupted from above, as those up top opened up on the Dead horde that was now visible. Something rammed into the side of The Tortoise, making Apocalypse Girl jump and leaving a nasty dent in the wall of the sleeping compartment. Jarhead shouted from above “Dingoes to the left! LEFT!” and they focused their fire on the mutants.

  Unable to help myself, I scurried up to the platform just in time to see the remnants of the Dingo pack scatter and flee back to the northwest. The Marching Dead, however, surrounded us, packing themselves around The Tortoise so fucking tightly that they began to rock our vehicle. The gunners mowed down all the Dead they could, but still they pressed against us.

  “Hold your fire!” Disciple's voice shouted from below us. It sounded unusually slurred, for some reason. His Dead stopped rocking us as Jarhead called a halt to the onslaught of bullets. A moment later and the army of rotten corpses fell back a little. Disciple stood at the head of the horde, sword in hand. How exactly he could control them I had no clue, but they clearly obeyed his every command. Every other Dead we had encountered would have been mindlessly trying to get into The Tortoise, after nothing but fresh flesh. The Kid alone had been able to control them, somewhat, though not where food was concerned.