Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 1): January (2 page)

Apocalypse Girl took me aside and told me she wants me to keep an eye on Valet, make sure he is alright.  With a look in her eye saying that if he isn't alright, to make certain he isn't a threat to us.

dusk

Valet seems alright as long as he keeps up with the antibiotics every couple of hours.  Checked out his wound, seems nasty looking still, but I cleaned out all the pus and crap and re-bandaged.  Seems like we might have caught the infection in time maybe.  He says the burning has mostly stopped, he can hardly feel anything in that arm now.  Just claims he is really tired, can hardly blame him.  Yawning myself as I am writing this.  Valet now asleep, snoring away in the corner.  Apocalypse Girl told me to get some sleep too.

January 3rd Year 1 A.Z.

morning

Was woken up by a gunshot around 3 am, apparently Valet wasn't as healthy as he was pretending to be.  Turned out he died a few hours after I fell asleep and went wandering.  Apocalypse Girl had no qualms about putting him down after that.  We decided that we needed to stock up on medical supplies at the very least while we were here, and we filled our backpacks with bandages, antibiotics, as much as we could manage.  The unfortunate part of the whole business involved a small gathering of Dead outside the chemist, no doubt attracted by the gunshot.  Only ten or so, but more than enough to pose a problem for Apocalypse Girl and I.  From the roof however, we could lower ourselves down to the alley behind the chemist.  We only had to make the Dead outside believe that we were still inside as we made good our escape.

noonish

Apocalypse Girl had a brilliant idea, she had discovered in her backpack as we were leaving the hotel an mp3 player with external speakers.  We set the speakers up high and turned up the volume, suddenly the chemist felt like a heavy metal concert, complete with mosh pit, Dead attempting to batter the front door down.  It worked fucking brilliantly, indeed, almost too well.  The confirmation that someone was indeed inside provoked the Dead into a frenzy, smashing against the chemist's front door with it's flimsy lock, already broken once when we came along.  We placed Valet's still-warm corpse in front of the door hoping that the food might slow them down somewhat as well.  As Apocalypse Girl and I were escaping up to the roof the front door collapsed inward.  I lowered myself down, my companion following, and swiftly, silently, we made our way away from the chemist, still to the east.  We stopped to eat under a tree on top of a hill, having decided that cross country was perhaps a safer way to travel, giving me a chance to write this.  Apocalypse Girl mentioned that we needed to find somewhere safe to spend the night, or else we would have to keep moving till dawn.  Dammit she wants to start already...

evening

Apocalypse Girl and I headed east from our lunchtime hilltop tree, and after a few hours of travel through a sparse wooded area we heard, of all things, music.  Guitar, flute, a drum, these were all being played nearby.  Apocalypse Girl and I looked at each other mutely for a moment before we headed, cautiously, in the direction of the sound.  The air was heavy with smoke and the sounds of laughter joined the music.  Through the trees we could see the glow from a fire, as the sun began its descent.  As we closed we could see people cavorting and dancing around the fire, others playing their instruments.  There seemed to be around twelve in total, all staring with wide-eyed amazement as Apocalypse Girl and I walked out of the woods.

“They're hurt!”  One woman exclaimed.  Another called to someone to get blankets and towels and hot water.  Two girls ran to a sturdily built barn-like structure as the others made us comfortable.  I tried to tell them that we were alright and the blood covering us from head to toe was that of the Dead, and was immediately shushed by a kindly looking elderly hippy lady handing me a joint.  With everything we had been through in the last few days that shut me up instantly as I took a long toke and inhaled deeply.  Apocalypse Girl was receiving similar treatment from another hippy.

“What happened to you two?”  One older gent was asking of Apocalypse Girl.  The musicians kept on playing professionally, not missing a beat.  Several hippies that had seen enough of us for now went back to their revelry.  The girls returned, one carrying a bucket, steam rising from its contents, the other carrying assorted towels and blankets.  Apocalypse Girl and I found ourselves gently but persistently being stripped naked, washed clean and probed for injuries.  Upon discovering that we were uninjured the questions began.  Whose blood was it covering us, what had we gotten ourselves into, that sort of thing.  Their concern was genuine enough, at least until I told them the Dead were walking and that we had been simply trying to survive for the last few days.  One guy laughed, and the kindly old lady that had given me a joint told me that we had better take this seriously.  Apocalypse Girl told them that it was indeed serious and they had better fucking pay attention.  They left us alone for a few minutes and went off to discuss us in private.

When they came back they told us that we were welcome to stay with them overnight, but that unless we told them the truth about what had happened to us we weren't to stay any longer.  They gave us until morning to come out and tell the truth, and then went on as if nothing had been said.  Back to being friendly hippies, helping the poor unfortunate bloody people that wandered into their commune.  We learned a lot about them actually, in the next hour or two, as they told us all about how they have more food than they strictly need, and that they grow their own weed, make their own wine.  Indeed that was how they were able to find the small amounts of money that they really needed, was by selling marijuana to some of the local farmers.  In fact one of them was late getting back from such a delivery.  I told them that I hoped he was alright, the kindly lady giving me one of those looks as a battered old Ute drove up from the direction of the main road.  The look she gave me turned to one of complete satisfaction, at least until the driver fell out of the vehicle.  A heavy man, his face was bright red as he huffed and puffed for breath.  We gathered around him, the kindly lady rushing to his aid as swiftly as she had come to ours.  He saw Apocalypse Girl and I and asked straight away, gasping the question “Are they bit?” before fainting.  My hand was already reaching for Valet's, now my, crowbar, as he came to once again.

Kindly Lady came over once again as soon as Fat Dealer had been seen to and recovered enough to tell his tale.  Apparently he had just finished his rounds of the local farms, and was saying goodbye to his final customer when a couple of Dead ones had surprised them, tearing out the throat of his buyer as Fat Dealer dove for his Ute.  A couple of the other farmers had told him of strange events they had seen on the news over the last several days, but of course he hadn't really believed them then.  Had it not been for that foreknowledge, his reactions may not have been so swift, but as it was he suffered a massive asthma attack during the drive and had barely made it back alive as a result.  Kindly Lady offered an apology on behalf of the entire commune and offered us a place for as long as we needed it, provided we help out and follow the rules.  I suggested that it might be a good idea to build a wall of some kind around the commune.  Kindly Lady nodded sagely, saying that she had been thinking the very thing.  She clapped her hands and called for a gathering, then tasked Fat Dealer with showing Apocalypse Girl and I to our room, apologising for us having to share.  We shared a glance, then grabbed our backpacks and followed him into the barn, which it turned out was in fact more of a house, almost an apartment complex really, with three floors, several rooms on each floor and a large common room at one end.  The room we were allocated had an exit leading to a kind of balcony structure on the roof of the barn.  This could work, I began thinking, we can turn this place into a fucking fortress.

January 4th Year 1 A.Z.

dawn

Slept like a log after taking first watch, Apocalypse Girl and I don't entirely trust these hippies yet.  Nothing eventful since last night, but as soon as the sun came up Fat Dealer knocked on the door saying he was going to get a crew together to cut down some trees and start making some kind of defences.  Apocalypse Girl said she wanted to get to know the people here before deciding if we stay or not, but suggested I go along with Fat Dealer and his mob.  Hope they at least feed us breakfast first!

mid-morning

Fat Dealer is a fucking slave driver!  There are ten of us, all told, doing the work, and we have already cleared every tree within view.  Taking a quick drink/snack/smoke break now, good time to point out these people work really fucking well together.  They seem friendly enough, too, but clearly a bit wary of newcomers.  Who can blame them with the Dead wandering around eating everyone?  Back to work now...

noon

Turns out Fat Dealer used to be in construction.  So he knows how to build a wall fairly well.  Only a fairly simply log wall for now, but he is already talking about making a clay brick wall, as there is a river nearby and clay is abundant.  Another guy is talking about making bows and arrows from some of the smaller pieces we have lying around.  We've all taken to carrying around at the very least a decent sized stick in case any Dead show up, so far nothing, but we are keeping an eye out.  The girls who had brought water and blankets last night came out with food for us, turns out they're twins.  Fat Dealer wanted to know what I was writing about, so I told him.  He thinks recording the end of the world is a little pointless.  Not entirely sure I disagree to be honest!  But it's something to do...and I do feel I need to do this.  This mess of omelette The Twins brought out is fucking tasty...worth staying here for the food alone!

evening

Finally done for the day.  We've got a workable wall now, not very high, but enough to slow them down.  Kindly Lady thanked me for my input last night, and for helping with the wall today, so I thanked her in turn for feeding housing and clothing a pair of possibly insane blood covered strangers.  She smiled and said “I still don't know you're not insane, you know.  Besides, you two needed help,” and walked away.  I spotted Apocalypse Girl and went over to see how she was doing.  Turns out Kindly Lady had been interrogating her all day, and she had been given a stern talking to about hiding the fact that she carried a gun.  She was allowed to keep it, naturally, but not to carry it around with her.  So she resolved to stay as close to the barn, and our room, as she could possibly manage.  The good thing was these hippies seemed to have a good sense of personal space and privacy.  Nobody would ever think about going into somebody else's room uninvited, or about stealing from anyone else.  Everyone shared what they had and the entire group benefited from it.

We sat around in a large circle as we ate a communal dinner together.  Someone suggested the idea that tomorrow we should go around to the local farms, make sure the people are alright, and offer them and their livestock shelter until the Dead situation is resolved.  Kindly Lady nodded and said “I was thinking that exact thing.  We must offer help to our neighbours.  And if we don't have any neighbours left, we must see to their animals.”  Fat Dealer rolled a suitably massive joint, sparked it up, took several deep draws, and passed it on to his left.  He then volunteered to drive a few people around to the farms in the morning.  The man who had suggested bows and arrows, Archer as I thought of him, said that he planned to begin with that tomorrow also.  I said that I would patrol the perimeter of the fence to make sure that it was still sound, and to handle any Dead that may have found us.  The Twins suggested that they begin collecting clay for bricks for our second wall.  Apocalypse Girl offered to guard them, as she has the gun.  I told her to take the crowbar too, as I now had The Bommyknocker, a small tree branch I had found, slightly longer than my forearm, with a nicely bulbous end that was satisfyingly solid.  I will admit to myself that I was actually quite looking forward to seeing it in action.

January 5th Year 1 A.Z.

dawn

Apocalypse Girl and I kept our watches again last night, and were promptly awoken at dawn once more.  Turns out if you volunteer for a task in this place you're expected to fucking do it!  Not that I had any intention of shirking my patrol, far from it.  I probably understand better than the rest of the people here how important security from the Dead is.  Most of the people here haven't had to deal with the Dead yet.  As I made my way downstairs I met an eager young lad who wanted to come with me on my patrol. On that note...