Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 2): February (5 page)
As it happened somebody in their group remaining had been bitten by the mother, but thinking it a minor scratch from moving supplies told nobody about it. “That was my dad,” The Boy said around a mouthful of food. Clearly The Children had been paying more attention than we had suspected. “He told me he got bit.” Continued chewing. Redbeard continued the tale. It had been much the same for the rest. Lock up the freshly Dead, barricade, hope to survive as long as they could manage. Rinse and repeat. Each new room they found themselves in bought them another day or two of life, though the cost was always great. Auntie said that they had never imagined a place like this even existed, let alone would they live in one. Not that any of us had, really, but then none of us, given the situation, had any problems with our current lodging arrangements at all.
February 8th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
After a mess of pancakes that Auntie made for everyone, Smart Guy, The Colonel, Apocalypse Girl and I made for the main computer lab. Late last night one of the perimeter sensors had gone off, meaning that there could be Dead in the compound. The Smart Couple wanted to keep the news to a minimum, deciding only to tell myself and The Colonel, but Apocalypse Girl and I rarely left one another's sides, so she was included. Smart Guy pulled up a satellite image of the compound, and sure enough, there was indeed movement inside the perimeter. He switched between optical and thermal images to confirm that they were, indeed, as cold as the snow outside. Definitely Dead.
The Colonel already had a plan, and a good one, if a little simple. She, The Twin, Redbeard and I were going to come out of the main building, guns blazing, and cut them all down. There looked to be around twenty to thirty of them out there, though the way they moved made it difficult to be certain. The snow today was quite light, though I doubted we would see really heavy weather for a while yet, so we would definitely have the advantage of mobility. Apocalypse Girl said that she was coming with us, but The Colonel shook her head, saying that with her wound she could prove a liability. Apocalypse Girl looked as though she was going to argue the point, but The Colonel promised to watch my back and she seemed momentarily mollified.
noon
We exited the elevator easily enough, guns drawn, just in case the Dead had managed to infiltrate the building itself. Fortunately, they had not, at least not yet. We could see through the windows that the number of Dead inside the compound itself had risen already. There had to be at least fifty of the decomposing fuckers out there. This was not necessarily going to be hard, but it was going to take some time. The Colonel asked if anybody thought we needed reinforcements. I thought to myself that Junior would have a ball out here, but said that we should be able to take care of it ourselves easily enough.
We took up position on either side of the double doors leading to the world outside, Redbeard asking what the plan was. I suggested that, depending on how things looked when we open the door, we make a run for the stairs leading to the helipad. We agreed on that, with the backup plan that if there were too many in the immediate vicinity we would clear the area around the door, and just hold position until the Dead were all dead.
As the doors opened inwards, The Twin and I took one each, leaving The Colonel and Redbeard to unload on the approaching Dead. They blasted the few that stood before us, surprised suddenly with the appearance of a fresh meal, and we ran for the helipad, The Twin and I careful to shut the doors behind us. As soon as we had done that I had to thank myself for the foresight to shave my head clean of hair, as clawed fingers brushed across my scalp. Had I retained the matted mane of doom that I had removed I would certainly not be writing this entry now. The Twin killed my assailant with a neatly placed round through one eye and we followed Redbeard and The Colonel swiftly up the stairs. At the first landing I stopped, telling The Twin to continue. She ran on ahead as The Colonel and Redbeard opened up on the horde stumbling their way up the stairs to reach me and I pulled out my sword.
I had chosen that precise location to hold the stairs because it was a blind spot. I couldn't see my three companions up there, they could not see me. That meant if some sneaky Dead found their way unseen to the stairs they could easily come up behind us and be gnawing on our arses before we could even sneeze. And it was getting pretty fucking cold up there, I might add, so sneezing was bound to happen sooner or later. Sure enough, before too much longer along came a Dead one, then another, followed by a couple more. It seemed as if one of them found something or, more precisely, some
one,
they might be able to eat others nearby took heed and followed suit. The first Dead to approach I met with my blade, in my right hand, slicing neatly through its skull, the second I waited until it was nearly upon me, then I put my gun, in my left, to its head and squeezed the trigger, sending rotting brains spattering onto the two behind it. This procedure was repeated much more quickly with the next pair of Dead, and my blade stuck in the head of the next one. Another approached from below that, before I could bring my gun to bear, was upon me. This dislodged my katana from its fellows head, but also from my hand. Just in time I managed to jam the barrel of my .45 between the teeth of the Dead, and we fell together.
The gun went off, killing a Dead that was ascending the stairs behind my assailant, all the while keeping the jaws of my Dead assailant wide apart. It struggled to reach my flesh, drooling black strands of ichor onto my arms. I could see more Dead approaching from below, and knew my death and my Death came with them.
The Dead on top of me fell silent, an arrow through its head. I rolled out from under it, kicking it down the stairs to slow down the other Dead on their way up. I knelt, carefully taking aim with my .45 and shot them all in the head, then I scooped up my katana, and made for the top, thanking The Twin on my way past her as she slung her bow on her back once again. “I couldn't do it with this,” She held up her pistol. “I knew I could with the bow...”
The Colonel ordered Redbeard to hold the stairway while she told me the situation that she had seen. The Dead had gotten so densely packed on the road up to the facility that a large amount of them had basically gotten over the fence by literally walking on the backs of their fellows. She handed me a small pair of binoculars and pointed. Looking where she had indicated, I saw that she was correct. More piled over the Dead already present. Why a top secret facility like this had no more security than a double boom gate to enter the car park I had no idea. There weren't even severe tyre damage spikes, for fucks sake. “We need to take care of this, it could be a serious problem,” I told her. She replied that as far as she saw it, it already was way beyond serious. She and Redbeard could hold the fort up here, she said, but she wanted The Twin and I to go downstairs and gather a sniper rifle, a flamethrower and some gas masks.
evening
The Twin and I wasted no time in fetching the required items, and in no more than an hour, were in the elevator going back up to the surface once again. The Colonel greeted us as the doors opened, quickly taking the flamethrower and telling us all to don our gas masks. Gunfire came from without, in the general direction of the doors. Redbeard, no doubt. The Colonel told The Twin to take the sniper rifle and cover us with it, while the rest of us took care of the situation. She nodded, and ran off.
The rest of us made for the gate, killing any Dead that we saw on the way there. Upon arrival, The Colonel asked us politely to keep the Dead off of her while she cleared them off the gate. Even with a gas mask the stench was horrendous this close to this many Dead, there were easily thousands out there. I could see that many wore suits, any of the Dead that had once been female wore what had once been ridiculously overpriced jewellery. I said to the others that we seemed to have found the people this place had been meant to house.
“Good.” The Colonel said, grimly. “Politicians are responsible for too fucking many of my friends dying too fucking young. I am going to enjoy this...” With that, she raised the flamer, and began roasting Dead politicians. With that many Dead so close on fire, the stench was truly unbearable, and we left, heading inside. The Twin met us at the door, and we went under together. It was difficult for the four of us to eat after having smelled thousands of burning Dead, but we managed, and slept.
February 9th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Breakfast this morning, then Smart Girl called The Colonel and I into a smaller computer lab. Apocalypse Girl followed, naturally, and the four of us gathered around a monitor, which she brought up a satellite image on. We immediately recognised the compound, and saw that the fires of the Dead still blazed strongly. We also immediately saw that the flames were only affecting the front few ranks of the Dead, and that there were many thousands behind them all surging forwards. Smart Girl pointed to another, much smaller, group of something moving. Clearly they had been attracted by the fire, as had the group behind that, and another group behind that one too. All of them moving directly towards the flames. Seven groups all told, moving towards us. She then switched over to thermal imaging.
The Colonel swore. Apocalypse Girl pointed to the four groups glowing red and said, “So these ones are still Living, yeah?” Smart Girl nodded. “They're still days away, at least. What do we do? We've got to help them...” I tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry. Smart Girl opened a fresh bottle of water and handed it to me without a word. Smart girl, that Smart Girl. I wet my mouth, and told her that after seeing the size of the horde at the gates yesterday all four of those groups were fucked. “We have to do
something
though! We can't just leave them out there alone!”
“She's right. We do have to do something. We have to lock the fucking door.” The Twin said, slipping into the room. Apocalypse Girl and The Twin proceeded to argue the point back and forth for a few minutes, first quietly, then they started shouting. I tried to get between them to calm them down, but Apocalypse Girl shoved me aside. After that I just sat and watched.
“
Enough!
” The Colonel shouted. They stopped, each looking mildly ashamed. “They're both right, each in her own way. We must defend our position, and we must do what we can to help those people. We have to make sure the road is clear, at the very least. That helps our security, and eases their passage.” She looked each of us in the eyes. “Above all, we have to keep the fires burning. I realise that raises a whole host of other potential problems, but it keeps the Dead coming, and serves as a beacon to the Living groups out there, as well. If there are four groups out there in the immediate vicinity that can see this pillar of smoke by day and fire by night, then you can be sure as hell there are others out there who can see it too. They're going to come this way too. Believe me. We lock those doors and we're responsible for a lot of deaths.”
noon
The cold hit us like a fucking brick as we stepped outside. The Colonel, Apocalypse Girl, The Twin, Redbeard and I surveyed the scene. The compound remained clear of Dead, though the bodies from yesterday's cleaning spree still lay about, here and there. The Colonel gave Apocalypse Girl her binoculars, and sent her and The Twin up to the helipad to keep watch for both any approaching Dead, or Living. The rest of us, once again, went to the gate.
Our work yesterday had been effective, not a single corpse in sight moved, and the flames had retreated down the line somewhat. Dead flesh burned easily enough, but the snow retarded the spread considerably. The corpses remained, yet when I kicked one, it disintegrated to dust and ash. The Colonel casually pulled a grenade from her belt, removed the pin and lobbed it gracefully into the horde behind the ashen dead. It hit one, who turned to see what had pummeled it, raising a semi eaten arm in our direction just an instant before it was blown to the hell that had rejected it, as well as about a dozen of its companions in Death. Everything behind them turned as one entity, and surged forwards. The Colonel threw several more grenades into the horde, blowing great chunks of dead Dead flesh skywards, and we all wore our gas masks as they drew ever nearer.
We stood behind the boom gates, and as the Dead piled up against it, The Colonel once more applied a generous portion of fiery death to the mixture, resulting in another flaming pile of dying Dead, many of which already burned or smouldered from yesterday's efforts. The three of us stood back from the fire, though we appreciated the warmth, our nostrils objected strenuously.
evening
After a long, hot shower, and a hotter, tasty meal, we relaxed in the common room of our floor. Redbeard asked Apocalypse Girl how she had wounded her arm, and expressed disbelief that the Living would attack other Living given the circumstances. The Twin told him about the bandits who had assaulted the commune where we had first met her after that. He shook his head. After a few seconds thinking about it he asked, “How can we be sure one of the groups coming towards us isn't going to try something like that?”
