Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 1): January (8 page)

“Something strange is happening to me...”  The Kid said to me at one point as I filled the Valiant's enormous petrol tank.  “I haven't needed a shit in days, haven't had to piss either.”  He glanced downwards at his leg.  “Haven't felt hungry or thirsty either, for that matter.”  I still put it down to the close call we had with the bandits at the commune, but he was not convinced.  He wandered off, pausing occasionally to sniff the air.  All I could smell was motor oil and gasoline, but considering he grew up on the commune he was probably unfamiliar with the scent.  When he was out of earshot Apocalypse Girl approached me.  She didn't entirely trust The Kid.  Not that she was afraid of him, she didn't think he was going to be a liability to the group at all.  No fear that he would deliberately infect any of us at all.  No, she was concerned because she had noticed exactly the same thing that he had just broached with me.  Everybody else had felt these needs.  She just didn't want him eating anybody.  I doubted that it would come to that, but better to be aware of the potential for danger.

Since we were in a nice open area we decided to sleep inside the service station.  The Kid insisted on sleeping outside, since he was by far the least likely to attract any Dead attention, and he said himself that he might be a danger.  He looked scared shitless about causing another one of us harm.  Archer found a nice easy way of getting up onto the roof and set himself up there for the first watch.  Luckily it was a full moon tonight, so there was plenty of light by which to see.  I told The Kid to stay under cover until morning, as, bright thought the night was, it would be far too dark to distinguish Living from Dead.  He nodded.  I handed him Fat Dealer's shotgun and went inside.  Archer would wake me around ten for my shift, which could last until perhaps two in the morning.  It was hard to tell time without watches.  Nobody had a watch, out of everybody here.  Apocalypse Girl and I had been relying on our mobile phones to tell the time, but they had died on the first day, and so far we had not had time to even think finding some way of charging them.  The hippies on the other hand, had no mobiles, no watches, no clocks and no need for them.

I looked around on the shelves with the last bit of dying sunlight.  There were other basic supplies here that we would need.  I made certain to grab several containers of oil and coolant, and a couple of sets of jumper cables, putting them neatly out of the way near the front door so we wouldn't forget.  I also went around behind the counter to check if there were any lighters.  There were not, as it happened, and Apocalypse Girl sauntered up at that moment, asking me if I was looking for something.

“Lighters.  But it looks like someone else got here first.”  I said.  She chuckled and opened up her backpack.  It was very neatly packed, much more so than mine, except for a layer of lighters floating around freely.

“Thought they might come in handy.”  She smiled.  “Help yourself.  Probably better if everyone has a few anyway.”  I grabbed a handful, stuffing them into the pockets of my jeans.

We sat behind the counter together, simply speaking of better times.  Before long, Archer came in through the door to get me for my watch.  I scurried up to the roof, and waited for something to happen.  Several hours passed.  Sheer boredom.  Time to get Junior and maybe get some sleep, not that I even remembered what that felt like anymore.  From below I heard The Kid snoring away like a chainsaw.  At least someone could sleep...

January 14th Year 1 A.Z.

dawn

We awoke with the dawn.  The sky was grey, looking as if about to bucket upon us millions of kilolitres of water at any moment.  The Kid was inside, chatting away with Butcher who was preparing breakfast for everyone.  By the time we all piled into the vehicles it had begun, raining great big squishy raindrops, splattering greyly on the windshield of the Valiant as Apocalypse Girl drove us further to the east.  The rain seemed strange, it seemed a grey sludge was forming on the wipers as we drove, the torrential downpour threatened to continue for eternity.  The roads were wet and slippery, and after a while Apocalypse Girl gave the agreed on two honks of the horn and we stopped.  By now the rain had worsened and lightning flashed across the sky.  It was the only time we could see, for a brief period, but it was welcomed every time.  Until a bolt struck the top of a nearby tree, when we were all blinded.

unknown-suspect late afternoon

The rain has still not stopped.  We can hear nothing but the rain, we can see nothing but the rain.  I'm starting to think it will never stop.  Nothing else to do but smoke ourselves stupid at the moment.  Can't see to drive, can't get out of the car, because we can't see and the Dead could be inches away before they're detected.  Gradually the grey sludge pelting the windows darkened to black sludge as night fell.  We could no more move in this than in a blizzard.  We ate from the snacks that The Kid had grabbed, drank water.  The rain became our very existence for the next several hours.  The only light a faint red glow passing from one person to the next.  Eventually the smoke grew thick enough that we could no longer see inside the Valiant either.  We dozed, as only the truly stoned can, and were awoken by The Kid screaming in his sleep.

It turned out he had been having a nightmare in which he, in full control of his own actions, decided to eat one of us.  He crawled over Junior to get to the door, and flew outside.  By now the rain had slackened off to a faint trickle, and we could hear him trying to vomit out every dream he had ever had.  After a few minutes of this, he halted.  Saying that he was going to take a quick look around, he disappeared into the gloom.  He returned a short while later, unable to see anything in the darkness, and climbed back into the car.

After this we simply sat in silence and waited for a new day to dawn.

January 15th Year 1 A.Z.

mid-morning

The rain halted sometime after sunrise, but the gloom remained.  Clouds blanketed the sky, the sun a faint glow behind darkness.  The rain had washed away all the colour in the world, it seemed, with the grass grey and bleak as the road upon which our vehicles sat.  The blood that had covered the bonnet of the Valiant, spray from the Dead-catcher, had also been cleansed by the deluge.  The sheep in the back of the Ute were in bad shape, though.  They had been exposed to the torrent all through our drive, and through the night with almost no food.  Butcher had let them down and was coaxing them off the road to graze a while as we surveyed the situation.

The Twin stood on the roof of the Valiant, bow at the ready, as the rest of us discussed the possible ramifications of the rain.  It was perfectly clear that it had been tainted somehow, we suspected that everybody who had survived long enough to do so had burned as many Dead corpses as they could, as we had at the commune, might have contributed towards it.  I thought back to my childhood, when the term greenhouse effect had been bandied about in the media.  Perhaps this could be considered a Dead-house effect?  Rather than Climate Change, Climate Carnage?  Archer suggested that it could just be a local phenomenon.  Apocalypse Girl thought hard about it and decided that it was far more likely a global effect, as the first reports we had seen at the new years party had come in from Europe, followed closely by America.

The Twin whistled sharply and pointed ahead of us.  On the horizon a lone figure stood, moving slowly closer with each step.  As the figure drew nearer, others appeared behind it, these clearly Dead, by their shambling.  They followed the figure relentlessly, though they were clearly being left behind a little further with each step the figure took.
“What are we going to do?”  Apocalypse Girl asked me.  I called for suggestions, Butcher immediately suggesting that we just get in the cars and drive through them all.  Junior and The Kid seconded this, but The Twin told them they're mad.  If this person, whoever they are, have managed to survive this long alone, then we need them.  Apocalypse Girl pointed out that we had room for one more person in the Valiant and more than enough food for a while, at least.  The Twin pointed out that she could put an arrow through his eye … right …
now!
  I asked her if she was sure he was male.  She said not completely, he was wearing a long overcoat, and covered from head to foot.

The figure had clearly seen us now, as he started running down the road at full speed, the shambling Dead still following.  “Dead are in range now,”  The Twin told us.  I just told her not to waste arrows that we couldn't recover easily, and she lowered her bow.  I pulled Fat Dealer's shotgun out from under the front seat of the Valiant, and moved forwards alone to greet the stranger.

“That's close enough!”  I shouted when the newcomer came within a couple of metres.

“You have to help me!”  Came a muffled voice.  The stranger was wearing a motorcycle helmet and dressed in black leather.  A gloved hand came up to flip the visor up.  “Please.”  It was a women's voice, urgent, yet calm.  She looked over her shoulder, back at me, and said again, “You have to help...”

I told her that we were armed.  She told me that was why she was asking me for help, couldn't I see the horde of shambling corpses following her?  I told her to get in the middle front seat of the Valiant, turned and ordered everybody else to get in the vehicles as well.  The new girl had removed her helmet as she got into the Valiant, revealing close-cropped blonde hair.  I asked her where she had come from, as Apocalypse Girl gunned the motor.  She laughed and asked if that mattered any more, everybody there was dead, or worse now.   Junior, The Kid and The Twin piled in the back as Archer and Butcher jumped into the Ute

As the Valiant collided with the gathering mass of Dead, blood and limbs flew to be scattered by the four winds.  The Dead-catcher scythed through their ranks cleaving flesh and bone with ease.  At first, at least.  After a while our progress through the Dead slowed to a crawl.  Apocalypse Girl shouted that there were simply too many of them, there was no way we were going to break through.  Then the Ute hit us.  The added momentum pushed us over whatever Dead was lying in the road blocking our path and Apocalypse Girl planted her foot to the floor.  The Valiant lurched forwards and the Dead flew.  The Ute followed us as the weight of the Valiant crushed whatever had blocked our path.  Soon the Dead faded out of view behind us and Apocalypse Girl slowed our pace a little so we could get to know the new girl.

dusk?

Apocalypse Girl and I between us interrogated Biker, the new girl, as to how she had survived so long alone.

“I wasn't alone at first.  You know how it is though, you lose people.”  We had lost people as well, sure, but there was something about the way she had said it.  These were clearly not people she had particularly cared for.  “Come to think of it, that's probably why I survived so long.  I lost everyone who was a threat to me.”

The Twin asked her if she had any weapons.  She replied that she did not, and had not used one since the Dead rose.  She was apparently a part of a group in which the women were “protected” in exchange for certain “favours” that they had been expected to provide.  This group was no longer “protecting” anybody, nor were there any more “favours” granted.  The Dead had put a stop to both of those, and Biker had been fortunate indeed to have been near enough to a suit of riding leathers left lying around by one of her “protectors” after he had been kind enough to distract some Dead by offering them dinner.  She had donned the helmet and started running and kept running until she could run no longer.  Then she walked until the rain started.  She had taken shelter in an abandoned Greyhound bus when she came across it, before the downpour became too intense.

“Do you guys have anything I can eat”  She asked.  Apparently there had been no food in the bus, and she hadn't eaten since before the Dead attacked the camp she had been at.  Junior handed her some wrapped up left over roasted sheep which she devoured so swiftly that, had it not been for the lingering odour, I might have imagined it.  We found a relatively secluded spot down a side road to camp for the night, and The Kid went off scouting while the rest of us sat and ate, and smoked.  Biker inhaled the smoke from the joint as if it were a long lost lover, she said that her last had been before the shit had hit it.  Her “protectors” had not had a good opinion of altered states of consciousness one bit.  It hampered one's awareness, according to their leader.  He had been a religious zealot, preaching that the end had come, no shit on that score, and that those left alive were expected to “be fruitful and multiply” so that the planet could be repopulated by “the faithful” of his flock.  It had been his idea to start “protecting” the women and children of the camp.  The children cooked and cleaned up around the camp, the women served in other ways.  They hadn't encountered any other Living since the beginning, and considered themselves to be the last of humanity.  Biker was immensely pleased that this was not the case.  After a while, The Kid returned with nothing to report.