Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 6): June

by Dave Rowlands

  noon

  The Colonel wanted to gun Disciple down once she learned who he was, but didn't when Apocalypse Girl talked her down. Even so, my former friend was warned to stay the fuck out of her way, and if she hears of him doing anything like what he and his Followers got up to in Melbourne she wouldn't hesitate next time. He knew she meant it, too, offering up none of the usual smartmouthed bullshit that he would have to anyone else. Disciple was understandably eager for us to be on our way after his encounter with The Colonel, but, at least in part purely to be a bastard, I told him that we would leave tomorrow morning. I wanted to spend some more time with Apocalypse Girl before leaving her behind.

  The Colonel talked about the ingenuity of the people of Coober's Nest, how impressed she had been that so many had managed to survive not just the Dead but the mutants that had begun to roam the wastes that the central regions of Australia had become. She was equally impressed by Digger, having come through his tiny town of survivors. They had offered assistance and had eventually left a small squad behind to help them fend off Dead and mutants, though Digger had stubbornly refused at first. It was only after The Colonel had mentioned her grandfather, whom Digger had known well, and some of his exploits in Tobruk and New Guinea that he had relented and afterwards, they had parted as firm friends, saluting one another respectfully. The Smart Couple had managed to synthesise vast amounts of the inoculation for the Dead Plague and they had been certain to vaccinate everybody that they could, military or civilian. The fact that several of The Colonel's men had been savagely mauled by the Dead and bore the scars to prove it while remaining quite polite and not trying to eat anybody was convincing enough for pretty much everyone. Nobody wanted to become one of the Dead after all, and the ability to withstand being bitten was, to say the least, a huge advantage.

  evening

  Apocalypse Girl and I spent some time with The Smart Couple in the computer lab, catching up for the most part. Smart Guy had managed to discover a way to make a mobile phone battery last almost indefinitely, installing it in Apocalypse Girl's phone, which she wanted me to take with me. “So we can keep in touch,” she told me as she handed it to me. We sent a couple of test messages to each other just to make sure she was familiar with the procedure using the computers, though we had the radio as well, it would serve as a good backup and we could use it for more … private and intimate communications. About thirty or forty civilians had decided to come along with The Colonel, some of these from Coober's Nest, including Dentist and Ginger. The red-headed Irishman claimed that they were only visiting, but the pair were mightily impressed with the medical facilities and stasis chambers. Ginger was already thinking, he told me privately, about setting up a trade route between here and Coober's Nest, using places like Digger's Trench as stopover points along the way.

  The Colonel decided to use Alice Facility as a base from which to strike against the Dead, though there were precious few of those left in the immediate area, this meant that she would be sticking around for at least a week or so, long enough, hopefully, for Disciple and I to complete our mission in The Empire and return via train. If she had to go anywhere, she would make certain that the others here realise that Apocalypse Girl, Sister and Scout were running the show.

  After dinner, Apocalypse Girl wanted to spend some time alone.

  June 15thYear 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Checking my backpack for the umpteenth time I secured Apocalypse Girl's phone, Scout's crowbar and the massive blade that Machete had given me. I checked that I had plenty of ammunition for my gun, grabbed a handful of lighters from Apocalypse Girl's own stash that, by now, would be nearing the thousands. Apocalypse Girl and Machete had refused to leave my side until I stepped on the train, which made

  preparations slightly difficult, but it might be a while until I return.

  Disciple awaited me at the train station, already packed and ready to go. Sonny, Scout, Sister and The Colonel waited with him, all but Sonny looking askance at Disciple with suspicion, The Colonel especially promising death for any betrayal. Three of The Colonel's men stood behind her, awaiting her orders.

  As I said my farewells to my friends, The Colonel called one of her men forward. Jarhead took a stiff stance as she ordered him to make certain that I make it home safely. He saluted, then took position behind me. “That uniform might be a bit conspicuous, mate,” Disciple told him. Jarhead swapped clothing on the spot with Sonny, then took up his weapons. “Military grade weapons could be a dead give-away, too,” Jarhead grunted. Scout offered her shotgun in trade for his assault rifle. After swapping over supplies of ammunition, Jarhead stood to attention directly behind me. “Okay, if you're going to walk around looking like you've got a pole up your arse we're dead for sure. Relax, mate.” He relaxed, a little. Disciple sighed.

  noon

  The train was reasonably straightforward to use, just a matter of forwards and backwards, really, at differing speeds. Even on the slowest setting, however, I felt that we were moving far too quickly into the unknown.

  Jarhead wanted to know where exactly we were headed, Disciple simply shrugged. “We'll find out when we get there, I suppose. It's somewhere near Brisbane, that's all I know. You know the mission?” Jarhead said all he was told was make sure thatImade it back alive. “Well, we're going to take out the three Bosses of The Empire.” Jarhead looked unimpressed. He told Disciple that might behismission, but it was not Jarhead's. I was starting to like this guy.

  I asked him what he thought about heading into Imperial territory. Jarhead shrugged. “I don't think anything about it. I'm here to protect you, that's all. As soon as I heard you were heading off somewhere alone, I volunteered straight away.” I was taken aback slightly, so I asked him why he chose to volunteer. “Mate, after you bashed some sense into me when I got those soldiers killed, I figured I owed you one.” Looking at the man, finally recognising him, I realised that I should not have attacked someone that large. I had clearly not been thinking that day. I mumbled an apology which he smiled and waved away. “I deserved that beating. It taught me something about the importance of human life.”

  evening

  We continued down the tunnel at a pace far too rapid for my liking, though Disciple claimed it would have been completely safe to crank it up to full power. Jarhead stood with me, however, and we kept it nice and slow. The carriage we were in, though it obviously contained some kind of engine, was totally silent as it glided about a foot above the floor level of the tunnel.

  Nothing but darkness lay before us, and we ate in silence. After we were done with our meal, Jarhead asked Disciple what had happened to his arm and face. A scarred visage stared at him, unblinking, for the longest time, when he finally spoke. “It was about two weeks after the first Dead got back up. I was with this group led by a bit of a religious zealot, who called himself The Abbott.”

  Disciple's eyes took on a haunted look as he continued. One day, he told us, while some of the men that should have been on guard were busying themselves with some female entertainment, the Dead suddenly found their way into camp and started chewing on people. One had decided that Disciple's hand seemed a likely meal, taking a large chunk out of it as he escaped the carnage. He hadn't stayed to help anybody out, but by that time nobody was left. He saw one other person, a woman, climbing into a suit of motorcycle leathers and helmet, who then ran for all she was worth down the road. A moment later, it clicked. I had known that woman. She had been my friend. Biker. All of a sudden an almost uncontrollable urge to throttle the living shit out of Disciple arose inside me. I choked it back down instead. I could always kill this fucker later.

  Disciple had taken advantage of the fact that the Dead were busily devouring his companions to take a meat cleaver and hack off his own arm at the elbow, after building as large a fire as he dared in a small house that was nearby. Then he cauterised the stump by heating up the blade of his cleaver and applying it to the wound. Luckily, he didn't pass out until afterw
ards.

  Unfortunately, when he fell unconscious he also fell forward into the fire. Since then, the Dead would always go for anyone else before him. If he were alone, sure, they would attack him on sight, but were he with anyone else they preferred another meal. Laughing dryly, he suggested that they didn't like him because he'd managed to partially cook himself.

  When he finally came to, he found himself in the awkward position of having to use his own severed arm as bait to lure the few Dead that had managed to wander into his location out into the rain, so that he could secure the building he had crawled into, where he remained, silently watching as our group came through after the rains finally stopped. He had recognised me, he said, straight away. On the other hand, he also saw that we had adopted Biker into our group. She would have had a few things to say about him, so he chose to keep quiet. After that, he found his way into the same group of bandits that had shot at us as we drove past in the Greyhound.

  Almost perfectly synchronised with the end of Disciple's story, the train came to a stop at the station. “End of the line, boys,” Disciple said, and we clambered out from the train car, making camp on the platform for the night. Jarhead recommended that we keep a watch out, just in case, though it seemed unlikely that there was anything dangerous out there. I agreed.

  June 16thYear 1 A.Z.

  morning

  The next morning found us whole and unmolested by Dead or any other kind of mutated fauna or flora. Disciple wanted to get a move on immediately, but Jarhead and I had different ideas. We wouldn't get anywhere near any of The Bosses without information, after all, and Jarhead wanted to know where we could find some.

  Disciple simply shrugged, saying that as far as he knew they were all holed up in Brisbane somewhere. Much, if not all, of Queensland was now part of The Empire, though they had found few of these facilities, if Disciple was to be believed. Hoping that this one was clear, of both Living and Dead, we moved out from the train station, climbing the stairs to the elevator. The elevator which, for some reason, had power running to it.

  We rode the lift up as far as it would go, weapons at the ready as the doors slid open. Nothing. The corridor was perfectly well lit, but there was no sign of any activity. Calling out carefully, we advanced along the corridor, glancing through every doorway we came across. Still nothing.

  Investigating the armoury and stasis chambers we resupplied, carrying as much as we were physically able to. There was no way of knowing how long we were going to be out here, in unfamiliar, hostile territory. The plan was to get in, kill The Bosses, get out alive again and fuck off back to Alice Facility. One thing I havealways hated about plans; they rarely go according to plan... I could only hope that this one would.

  noon

  Going topside, there was nothing but blasted buildings and ruins. This had been the site of a fairly major battle, by the look of things. Bullet casings littered the ground, walls were demolished. There was evidence of fire, quite a substantial blaze from the look of things.

  Jarhead wanted to check out what was left of the motor pool, discovering very quickly that there wasn't anything left of the motor pool, and that we were lucky that the Cold had abated and the snow had thawed out. We might have to slog this one out on foot.

  Finding the nearest major road wasn't difficult, only time consuming. The clear ground made walking much easier, and before long the three of us were sweating enough to require loosening of our clothing, much of which had fallen to rags by this time anyway. The sun overhead warmed us in more ways than one. I had despaired of ever seeing it again.

  The ground, to the side of the road, was cracked and broken, strange new flora forcing its sinister way through to find the daylight. Disciple stepped too close to a greyish green vine that seemed to pulse with an unholy, abhorrent life. It wrapped itself around his leg, sticking inch-long thorns into his calf. Screaming in pain he whipped his slender blade out, slicing away the offending plant-life.

  evening

  We found a bunch of abandoned vehicles that had been pushed off of the roadway, thoroughly ransacked of course, but it made a good place to camp. Each one of us would be able to stretch out in the back seat of our own car overnight, and they would shelter us from any Dead or mutants that might head our way overnight.

  Watching the sun descend over the horizon, I listened carefully for the sounds of the night. There was nothing. We built a small camp-fire, cooking up some dinner while we discussed our next move.

  Disciple was certain that we were relatively close to Brisbane, maybe even within a hundred kilometres, though the land looked blasted and destroyed, almost as if a major war had been fought here. There was evidence that buildings had indeed existed here, foundations and rubble were all that remained.

  Crawling into my chosen car for the night, I heard the familiar jangle of Apocalypse Girl's mobile phone. We sent a few messages back and forth, though nothing earth-shattering. Just the sorts of things that people say to one another when forced to spend time apart. I will record that I miss her, at least, and that I am glad she is safe. The rest you can guess.

  June 17thYear 1 A.Z.

  morning

  I was awoken by a large truck driving past at a reasonable clip, though we were too far from the road to flag it down and it disappeared into the distance, heading south, as we watched. Disciple swore, thinking that we might have gotten a ride from them, or at the very least some directions. Jarhead, by contrast, felt that they would have proven more trouble than they might have been worth.

  In any event, we ate quickly, then followed in the truck's wake, trudging to the south as a light sprinkle of rain fell from the dark grey clouds above. The sun flashed through them briefly, from time to time, though for the most part the day remained fairly gloomy.

  Hearing gunfire in the distance ahead of us, we rushed towards it. It ended long before we got remotely near, and after an hour of continued trudging, we came across a pyre upon which burned the carcasses of several Dead. Reasoning then that the truck we had been awoken by must be a kind of Dead-patrol, we decided to stay out of their way. Shambling corpses we might not be, but from a distance there would be a few similarities.

  noon

  In the distance we could see the ruins of a large city. Buildings lay as if scattered by the wind, skyscrapers lay lazily on the ground where once they would have reached for the stars. However, we could clearly see that it was a hub of activity. Through Jarhead's binoculars I saw sentries walking along a perimeter wall that seemed a good couple of metres high. Everybody seemed at least healthy, well-fed, though not necessarily clean. It seemed a good sign to me.

  Jarhead suggested that we could, if we chose to hurry, get there tonight, but he thought a better idea would be to approach the ruined city openly in the morning. I had to agree, as did Disciple, though he was clearly chafing at the prospect of nearing The Bosses who had, in his eyes at least, betrayed him.

  evening

  Finding a Greyhound on the side of the road, we climbed aboard, finding a couple of people already using it as a kind of stop-over, on their way from Brisbane up north. They told us that they had news of family in Cairns, so of course they were eager to meet up with them.

  Upon being asked why we were headed to Brisbane, I simply shrugged. Saying that I hadn't ever been there before, and now seemed as good a time as any for it produced a slight smile from one, a brief chuckle from another.

  We learned a few useful pieces of information. The Empire had set up rest stops like this one all along every major route between survivor settlements so that there was always shelter for travellers. Their Dead-patrols went out every couple of days and they were finding fewer and fewer Dead each time they left home. It seemed as if they were genuinely doing a useful service for the Living, at the very least.

  I hoped killing off The Bosses wouldn't adversely affect these things too much.

  June 19thYear 1 A.Z.

  morning

  The local pair buggered off al
most as soon as the sun rose, claiming that they had a lot of travelling ahead of them. If they intended to make it to Cairns, then yes, they most certainly did. Honestly, I was afraid they would not make it there, not alive anyway. The ruined city beckoned us onwards.

  We ate on the road, thankful that we could just walk out in the open with little fear of the Dead. The sun warmed us considerably, even though it was hidden behind clouds for much of the morning. As we drew closer to the remains of Brisbane we saw some fenced off areas, signs proclaiming them to be quarantine zones. There were several Dead in one, a couple of corpses in another, but most were empty. Disciple theorised that the locals must have locked up anybody that found themselves on the wrong end of a set of Dead teeth. Some ended it themselves, others just died, then rose as they chose.

  Walking down the road we came across a billboard that once advertised an expensive German car. Now, in fucking big red lettering, it demanded that you 'OBEY THE BOSSES' threatening a silent 'or else' with the three hanged people that had been left for Dead. Further on, another billboard had been utilised as a kind of rule board. All of the crimes were punishable by death, of course.

  It wasn't a very long list, though. To the credit of The Empire, they began their list with not killing anyone that wasn't already Dead, followed by not forcing anybody to do anything they didn't want to do. Theft of property was third on the list. Ending it was not killing or capturing Dead on sight. “Why would anybody bother capturing the Dead?” Jarhead asked. Disciple looked at him as if he were the stupidest man left living on the earth. Seeing that our military companion truly was that dense, Disciple said one word. Weapons.

  noon

  There were guards at the gate, of course, though the gate itself was open and they just waved us through. We were still well outside the ruins of the city, in the remotest suburban outskirts, but a wooden sign stood proudly above the gate proclaiming this to be 'New Brisbane' and we strode into the single most heavily populated survivor settlement that I had seen yet.