Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 5): May (3 page)

The Giant Dead brought its head down, dark red oozing from the wound that she had inflicted. I was searching through the fog for my sword that had flew from my hand when I landed, but my hands found nothing but a booted foot. I moved back, away from the Dead one that I had discovered and saw my katana had struck this one and was hanging loosely from its chest, supported by the rags the Dead one still wore.
Apocalypse Girl found me, putting a round through the head of the sword-bearing Dead one and I gathered my weapon as it fell to the ground, by which time the Giant Dead one had descended upon us once again. This time Apocalypse Girl switched from single fire to burst, raised the barrel of her gun up into the gaping mouth of the Giant Dead and pulled the trigger, totally obliterating the monster's cranium. It still stood, flailing its arms like a motherfucker, Apocalypse Girl rolling out of the way of the thing. I swung my blade at one leg, slicing it off at the knee, and the Giant headless Dead toppled over.

There were still more than thirty Dead ones left, by my reckoning, and we had almost run out of ammunition and energy. All of us but The Kid, that was, who was holding back the tide, or at least trying to as best he was able considering that particular tide was ignoring him completely. Apocalypse Girl switched back to single fire to take down the five Dead that she had rounds remaining for, then we backed off a little and regrouped.

“
Now what?” Sister asked. At that precise moment, Apocalypse Girl's phone jangled. The message read simply
duck
. We all complied, naturally, and as the back door to The Facility opened up, so did the squad of soldiers that had arrived. The Dead fell dead quickly enough, and one of the soldiers called out to us, saying that the coast was clear and to hurry up. We ran for it.

evening
The Facility was eerily almost an exact duplicate of The Think Tank. The only real difference was that this back door led out from the second floor of the place, the top level of living quarters. We were shown almost immediately to our quarters, that seemed as though they had been lived in recently. None of the soldiers wanted to speak to any of us, not even Archer, other than to welcome us that was, and to inform us that their commanding officer would like to speak to us in the morning. The soldiers also insisted on taking The Kid deeper into The Facility, which I at first protested, but the near-Dead teen told me that he knew what he was doing and went along willingly, even trying to make a few jokes with the soldiers, all of whom had their weapons trained on him the whole time.

The Smart Couple were waiting for us in the dining hall, and they greeted us with enthusiasm. The pair had clearly missed Apocalypse Girl and myself, at the very least. As I hugged Smart Girl I whispered into her ear, asking if it was safe to talk here. She whispered back, telling me that nowhere was safe, not here. The fear was evident in her voice.
We ended our embrace as Smart Guy began telling us about The Facility. “I'm not going to bore you with all the technical stuff, don't worry,” He started, “Basically this place has a similar layout to our old Think Tank, though of course nobody but The Major and his senior staff is permitted into the lower levels. It seemed to have been a genetic research lab, among other things, so we definitely have all the equipment we could ever hope for on that front.”

Smart Girl took over momentarily. “We have about four hundred civilians living here, all told, though those numbers used to be significantly higher.” Apocalypse Girl asked her what had happened to all the others. “Accidents happen, of course, and sometimes, especially nowadays, things can go catastrophically wrong.” Smart Girl shook her head slightly, but firmly, as she saw that explanation was not going to cut the mustard with us. Apocalypse Girl changed her next question, instead asking about food. “Naturally, you are welcome to our food stores, though you'll have to talk to The Major about any weapons, or anything like that.”
“
Where is everybody else, then?” Sister asked. “If there are four hundred survivors here, shouldn't we have seen a few of them by now?” Smart Guy told her that there were a dozen living levels and nobody really wanted to live on the floor with the door to the outside world anymore. I asked if we would be allowed up on the first level, where the computer labs are. Smart Girl told me that she would arrange for a couple of passes for Apocalypse Girl and myself at the very least, as we were relatively familiar with the systems used in The Think Tank which were similar. Smart Guy pointed out that there were a few new toys that we could play with in there.

“
Do you guys have a radio at all? I'd like to check in with my people back in Melbourne if that's possible.” Viking said. The Smart Couple looked at one another. Smart Girl said that they didn't. I looked into her eyes. She was lying, that much was certain, and she was bad at it, too. I remembered a radio that they had discovered back at The Think Tank. Smart Guy had said that it could probably send and receive signals as far away as Jupiter. Looking at him, he shook his head slightly. “Okay, how about vehicles? Do you guys have any here?” Smart Guy nodded. “I'm great with engines, but better with modifications. Any objections to me working on any of them?” He was told that he needed to clear it with The Major first. I was already starting to dislike this Major, and I hadn't even met him yet.

May 5thYear 1 A.Z.

morning
The beds here were every bit as comfortable as those in The Think Tank, and the showers, just as hot and refreshing. We went through the possessions of those who had been here before, finding clean clothing that hadn't been befouled by the innards of the Dead, and were just sitting around eating breakfast, just those of us that had come in last night. Well, not The Kid, of course, but all the rest of us at least.

I was chewing on a wad of crispy bacon when The Major strode in. His bearing was reminiscent of that of General Fuckwit, though his words and manner were a little more respectful. He saluted us, at first, then shook each of our hands. “Welcome to The Facility, my friends,” He sounded like a used-car salesman I had met once. He had convinced me to buy a car that I really hadn't needed at the time, and when I went back to the car yard after the bloody thing blew up on me a week later, he had mysteriously vanished along with his business. And my fucking money!
“
I'd like to thank you all for bringing that mutant here, my scientists tell me that he will be invaluable in the efforts to understand this disease, plague, whatever the hell it is. If we can develop some kind of cure, as they assure me we can, once we know what we're dealing with... Well, anyway, I've been informed of some of your requests, and most certainly you may work on our vehicles, sir.” He told Viking. “Anything you can do would be appreciated, to tell you the truth. We lost all of our mechanics fairly early on.”

To Apocalypse Girl and myself, “You two want access to the computer labs on the first floor, I understand. If not for your two friends here vouching for you, saying that you're almost as familiar with these systems as they are, then I would not allow it.” He smoothed back his black hair with one hand, muttering about needing a haircut. “As it is, we're short staffed here, and need all the help we can get. If you can help out with defence, as well, that would be most helpful.”

“
What's going to happen to our friend?” Apocalypse Girl asked him directly. “I understand all that about learning about the plague, sure, but he's really just a kid. I really don't want to be responsible for any more pain and suffering on his part.”
“
Don't worry,” The Major soothed her. “I get it. He will be treated with all due respect. I have assurances from my scientists that his every need is being met.” I almost pointed out that what he just said means nothing. The Kid has no needs. Instead I told The Major that I had heard about other survivors living here. “Yes, we have a couple of hundred, at least, I'm not really sure on all the numbers, to be honest. They come and go, you understand.” With that he saluted us once more, turned and left.

I looked into Apocalypse Girl's eyes and saw that she trusted this Major about as much as I did myself.

noon
I had forgotten how relaxing it could be to not be cramped up in one vehicle or another, with sweaty, stinky people crowding you from all sides, being all sweaty and stinky yourself for days at a time, only leaving said vehicle to hack apart the Dead. It was amazing. Apocalypse Girl was wanting to go to the computer labs, where hopefully we might be able to find out what the fuck is going on here, but I told her that we should wait until tonight. We have access, sure, but we don't want to make it look to obvious that we're snooping around, after all.
Archer was busy trying to make friends with the troops on guard at the main entrance, and had been met with limited success until one of them asked him, sounding as if he were expecting to be told no,
yet again
, if he had any tobacco. Archer smiled broadly, pulling a carton of the things from his bag. Luckily for him, Apocalypse Girl and I were passing by at that time, and she tossed him a spare lighter.

Up the top of the facility lay the vehicle pool, where Viking and Valkyrie were noisily taking apart some of the smaller vehicles to reshape the metal for use on some of the larger ones. The Major had apparently asked him to make several troop transports more resistant to the Cold and had ordered a couple of men to help him. They weren't happy at having to follow the blonde giant's commands and Viking was pissed that The Major would lumber him with such imbeciles. Valkyrie's expression left no doubt about it, she at least was having a ball.

evening
Finally inside the computer labs, Smart Girl told us that we could speak freely in there, and there alone. She told us that The Major had in fact installed listening devices in just about every room in The Facility, but that Smart Guy had come up with a suitable jamming device that had been explained away as interference from the computers. The Major had started out as a reasonable fellow, it seemed, according to Smart Girl, but once they had mentioned hearing of The Kid and her idea that some kind of cure or vaccine might be able to be developed from him he had started the experiments. He had several other scientists with him, bio-weapons specialists in fact, that had suggested to him that a limited exposure to infection met with massive doses of antibiotics
might
be able to replicate the phenomenon. That had been a couple of months ago now. The Major had initially called for volunteers from within his own ranks, but had begun deliberately infecting civilians now as well. They had started out with nearly two thousand people here, military and civilian alike. Now their combined numbers were approximating four hundred.

Smart Girl told us all of these things, and more. Disturbing, sick shit. The Giant Dead had been the result of some of the experiments that The Major had ordered. “Please help us, I can't think of anyone else that could do anything.”

May 6thYear 1 A.Z.

morning
I was sitting with Apocalypse Girl having breakfast when The Major entered, two heavily muscled gorillas in uniform flanking him. He told me that The Kid had been asking to see some of his friends, myself and Apocalypse Girl in particular. The Major said that our mutated friend was politely refusing to cooperate with any tests until he was able to speak to us and that his scientists were at the very least eager to get to work.

We finished up our food, followed The Major and his goons into the restricted area and were shown to a small room with a pair of chairs and another door opposite the one we had entered by. A minute or two later, once we had gotten settled in the seats, not very comfortable ones by the way, the door opened, admitting our friend.

He smiled at us in greeting, saying that his hosts weren't particularly fun people and he needed to see someone he could trust. He emphasised the word 'trust' slightly. He then asked us if we planned to continue searching for other groups of survivors. Apocalypse Girl assured him that was our plan, to which he heaved a sigh of relief. He told us quietly that he had felt a large number of his 'friends' inside The Facility and that they were restless and hungry. A little louder he told us that he had heard one of the soldiers talking about a group that had holed up around a mining town to the north and another underground complex far to the west.
“
I know what they've got planned for me here, don't worry about me. Just get out there and make sure that survivor's network gets up and running.” I mentioned that I had heard a thing or two about some of the things that went on here before we arrived. He nodded. “I know. The network is more important than that and so is whatever they can learn from me. We all know that. Might be a good idea to get in touch with your military buddy though...”

After that he rapped a couple of talons on the door, which opened a moment later. Our host came in a few seconds after that, talking about the need for more 'test subjects' with his goons. We were shown back to the mess hall after that, where The Smart Couple awaited with Viking, Valkyrie, Archer and Sister. All six were being held at gunpoint.

noon
“Did you
really
think that I didn't know what you were up to?” The Major shouted at The Smart Couple. “If I didn't need you both I'd have you shot right here.” He ordered the pair taken to the labs where they could work under 'supervision' until they proved themselves. The rest of us were confined to quarters and our firearms taken. They left us our melee weapons, saying that at least if any Dead broke in again we should be able to defend ourselves.
At least in this instance 'confined to quarters' meant that we were left in a wing of the second level where one corridor could be easily blocked off and guarded by only two men. We were basically allowed the run of the place, the guards only really paying any attention if we drew too near them. As it was we were able to go through a bunch of Dead people's things to see if there was anything that could help us out. There wasn't. Just clothing.