October

by Dave Rowlands

  Anno Zombus:

  Year 1;

  October

  Dave Rowlands

  This one is for my good friend Erin, with thanks for kicking my arse back into gear with encouragement!

  October 1st Year 1 AZ

  morning

  The sun rose behind us, lending extra length and girth to the shadow of The Elephant as it lumbered across the reddish grey waste. German Doctor seemed intent on learning as much as she could possible glean from Criss-Cross, staying as far from The Kid as she was able; he clearly unnerved her. Hell, the way he keeps changing, he unnerves me too. Considering the fact that, when I first met him he was a youthful teenager, scraped by a Dead tooth and resuscitated by a nearby unfortunate who paid for it with her own life. The mutations that he’d suffered in the intervening months had lengthened his limbs considerably, expanding his torso and jaws. All things considered, he looks like a fucking monster, but with the purest heart I’d encountered since the Dead began to rise.

  Apocalypse Girl had been in contact with her mother, The Boss was still in command of AR-18 and fairly insistent that we bring her daughter back, now that The Righteous had been routed. We were not inclined to return, however… it was safer to stay on the move these days, it seemed.

  Viking and Valkyrie were clearly happy to be back amongst friends, my large blonde friend stalking the deck of The Elephant like a pirate captain, laughing loudly as he regaled his crew with tales that would have seemed impossible a few short months ago. Apocalypse Dog bounded around his heels, barking whenever Viking chuckled.

  The members of my former squad seemed at a loss for something to do, so they took it upon themselves to teach some of the younger Mech-Techs how to take care of themselves in the wastes. Giant had taken a trio of young ladies under her wing, including Static, and was teaching them the finer points of sniping when they went out scouting together. There were plenty of Dead shambling around in smallish groups that they could practice on.

  Apprentice was down in the dumps, now that Scout had finally left for Coober’s Nest, and was second guessing her choice to leave the safety and security of AR-18. I told her that she’d do more good with a group like ours, as we didn’t exactly have our own doctors, unlike Apocalypse Mum’s cadre of scientific advisors and medical staff. That seemed to mollify her somewhat, though her smile seemed fainter than usual.

  noon

  Coming across a Meat-Beast wallowing in the remains of what had once been someone’s farmland, Viking ordered the harvester deployed. I told Scar and Maori to keep their eyes on the perimeter while the butchers did their work, while Giant and her sniper team covered them from the top deck of The Elephant.

  I ventured down to the ground, just to feel solid earth under my feet for a change. The Meat-Beast complained as the butchers worked, and loudly, but that didn’t deter them. From the ground, The Elephant seemed even more massive than it was; a great hulking metallic colossus that stalked the grey wastes exterminating Dead and former cows alike.

  Before long the butchers were done with the Meat-Beast, hauling the flesh up to the kitchens to be cooked. I examined the remains of what had once been a cow, finding that the blood still flowed, the heart still continued to beat. It would regenerate fully, given enough time; that much we had learned months ago.

  A shot rang out from above, a lone wandering Dead shambler fell to the ground missing its head. I glanced upwards to see Static exulting at her kill. She was indeed a fast learner.

  evening

  Apocalypse Girl was in a bad way; she wasn’t taking the swaying of The Elephant very well and as a result was making very close friends with a bucket. She was able to eat, just barely, when Viking called a halt to our progress. I took him aside, gently insisting that we not continue moving until dawn. He understood but wanted to put as much distance between us and The Boss as he could. She wasn’t about to send anyone after us, true, but it was better to not tempt fate.

  The clouds, as the day darkened, grew grey and heavy. Through them we could see shapes darting in and out, around and between the different layers, perhaps schrandfelths going about their cleanup duties. Criss-Cross quietly stalked up behind me, asking where we were heading. I told him that we were going west, to Perth, looking as always for survivors.

  The Klee-vics’ face seemed to ripple, tiny scales ruffling almost like feathers as I answered his question. He skittered around in a tight circle, glancing around for ears near enough to hear.

  “The Commander chose the site for our nest wisely. The western portion of this continent is … unsafe.” Criss-Cross would say no more on the subject, no matter how hard I pressed him. He would only reiterate that it was ‘unsafe’ without going into any details whatsoever.

  I watched Apocalypse Girl as she dozed, softly snoring in the bed that we shared in the captain’s cabin. Viking and Valkyrie occupied the only other bed, though the pair were happy to leave Apocalypse Girl and myself alone for a while; someone had to take care of her, and it may as well be me.

  “Damn it all, why the fuck do I get sea-sick?” She demanded of nobody in particular. “This is a fucking land vehicle, for fucks’ sake!” Even the way The Elephant swayed with the breeze had her reaching for her bucket. “If this continues, we’re going to have to find something else, some other way of moving about.”

  I couldn’t agree more, but for the fact of her pregnancy. It would have been hard enough for her to get around at the moment under normal circumstances; the apocalypse would not make it any easier.

  “I can handle trucks, cars, planes, helicopters, trains and tanks…” Her voice emanated from within the bucket. “This is fucking ridiculous!” A splashing sound followed her speech. “Even had fuckall morning sickness so far…” another splash.

  October 2nd Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Apocalypse Girl’s stomach was not easily settled, and Viking suggested that we stop every couple of hours to give her a bit of a break. Static made good use of the rest stops to visit Soldier in the medical bay, where Apprentice was busying herself humming her little song and applying her skills. Criss-Cross was studiously trying to avoid German Doctor and her incessant questioning about his culture and history. He was a warrior, not an anthropologist. He had little patience for anything but combat. I made a note to tell my former squad-mates to keep an eye on him, try to keep him occupied. The last thing we needed was an antsy alien on board The Elephant.

  The Elephant was fairly crowded; it had been designed for a large crew, but we were pushing the limits of its capacity with the extra people that had escaped from AR-18 with us. The Kid alone required a fairly large space, after all, and nobody really wanted to spend much time with him, other than those of us that knew him from before.

  His bulk unfolded from above the Captain’s Cabin as I came near. He didn’t seem to want to talk, just needed some human contact. Fair enough, I suppose. He’d had a bad run these last couple of months, it seemed. Even after what happened back at The Commune, where he’d been afflicted with his condition; a kind of mutation of the Dead plague that resulted in his body continually growing and mutating. His teeth resembled fangs now, his fingernails were blackened talons. His eyes were the only human looking part that remained. They were every bit as bright and blue as they had been the night Apocalypse Girl and I stumbled across his group, covered in gore.

  noon

  Progress was slow during the morning, The Elephant lumbering along the wastes, stopping every hour for ten to twenty minutes. With an elevated position and a small army of Mech-Techs the few Dead that bothered to investigate our passage were easily dispatched, Giant’s snipers happily getting in some extra target practice. Many of the Dead that we saw were nude; remnants from the cloning facility that had found their way sout
h.

  To the west we spotted what looked like smoke. The possibility of a campfire was admittedly slim, but any chance of meeting civilised people was worth taking and so west we went. It could be a town, there were a lot of tiny little settlements dotted all across the outback, what we used to refer to as ‘blink-and-you-miss-it’ towns.

  We stayed back a bit, sending Scar and Maori out on bikes to take a closer look. We didn’t have any room for extra passengers, too many of us had to double-bunk as it was. However, if they had access to a radio, we could give them the frequencies used by The School and AR-18 at least. The Smart Couple and Fluffy’s we were going to keep to ourselves.

  In time, the two scouts returned. It was a small town, nothing really going on, they were surviving as best they could and wanted absolutely nothing from anybody else. Scar told me that they seemed more than a little nervous at the prospect of armed newcomers, but they stood their ground and refused to let either of them inside the settlement. Maori seemed to think that they were hiding something, likely Dead in a building or something to that effect. They were clearly not Ghouls; they were easily identifiable, not to mention the fact that they’d have invited them inside for dinner. We decided that it was in our best interests to simply leave them alone.

  evening

  Heaving to for the night, Apocalypse Girl came out on deck to get some fresh air. Emptying her bucket over the side, she grinned at me, almost seeming her old self. Just reasonably heavily pregnant, as well as short an eye. It was by far one of the worst things I’d had to witness since first meeting Apocalypse Girl, seeing The Queen of Adelaide gouging out her eyeball with a fork. There had been absolutely nothing that I could have done to prevent it, either. That had been the worst part… not being able to put a stop to it.

  We just stood, enjoying the cool night air, colder than it should have been for the time of year, but far warmer than it had been a few months ago. The schrandfelths had been cleaning the world up well it seems. Fluffy hadn’t been in contact with us since AR-18, but he surely knew what had occurred. He had been talking to Apocalypse Mum, after all, so she probably would have told him all about it. Hopefully they could work things out, come to some sort of arrangement with The Klee-vics Commander as well as Fluffy’s superiors.

  As we watched, looking to the west, watching the fading glow of the sunset dying as it fell beyond the horizon, we saw something unexpected; a flare. It was clearly several kilometres away, and Viking decided on the spot that we were going to investigate it in the morning.

  October 3rd Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  Apocalypse Girl didn’t want me to go out with Viking and the squad, wondering why it was that I had to take responsibility for everyone else again, even though I had the chance to just rest up for a while. She understood, just didn’t like it. Really, she just wanted to join us. So, the six of us took out a bunch of motorcycles and headed out to the southwest, leaving The Elephant behind, Apocalypse Girl at least feeling grateful for the lack of motion.

  It didn’t take too long for us to realise where the flare had come from; a well-fortified small town that looked as though they had been overrun by bandits. There were survivors wandering around, picking up bits of broken glass and debris, some of whom sported bruises and small lacerations.

  One old woman pointed at us and shouted out to her companions. Several stopped what they were doing to investigate, many others returned to their work. One in particular, a grizzled old man covered in scars with a grazed forehead approached us.

  “If you’re here to rip us off as well, you’re too damn late; we’ve got nothing left.” He told us in a no-nonsense tone. “Bunch of raiders came through here yesterday, we sent off a flare for help from this bunch that reckon they’re out to help everyone in the wastes, but they’ve not shown up.” He spat a wad of phlegm laced with blood into the dirt.

  “Where’d the bandits come from?” Viking asked. They’d come from the south, on motorbikes and with guns, but they were more noise than any real threat. This was the third time that they’d come by, the first two times the Rangers responded but this time nobody came. They were based to the west.

  Giant and Scar took it upon themselves to patrol the perimeter while Maori and Wall headed to the south in search of evidence of the raiders’ passing. Viking and I stayed behind, helping with the cleanup and getting to know the locals.

  noon

  The inhabitants of this town were just normal people, trying to survive the end of the world as best they were able. This meant having to deal with bandit attacks on a fairly regular basis. They learned very quickly that, if they didn’t resist too much, didn’t kill any of the raiders or fight back, things went much easier on them. The Rangers from the west, however, had been a fairly recent addition to the scene. They’d been instrumental in removing a couple of the major groups of raiders, but this last time they were absent.

  The Rangers had arisen shortly before the Winter hit, their leader having the foresight to gather a large group of heavily armed people together in an equally well fortified bunker, deciding that it was preferable to try to look after any survivors rather than take advantage. I felt that they were probably well-intentioned, but if any of the military or paramilitary organisations that we’d had dealings with so far were to go by, there were likely issues, probably with the command structure.

  When the Cold finally abated somewhat, the snows finally melting, The Rangers struck out with the intention of assisting any- and everyone they could find. There were a few groups of raiders that had taken advantage of the Winter to terrorise and brutalise the local towns; The Rangers dealt swiftly with them. Other groups, like the one that had struck this particular town, they largely left alone. It was all about how big a threat they truly were. Schoolyard bullies shaking townsfolk down for their figurative lunch money were a vastly lesser evil than gangs of rapists, murderers and Ghouls.

  evening

  As there was little that we could actually do for them, we left the town, heading back to The Elephant, making note to keep an eye out for rogue bandits on our journey. The way the townsfolk had described them, they’d be no match for The Mech-Techs, either in numbers or weaponry. They’d likely flee with tails between their legs at first sight of The Elephant and the way it shudders in an ungainly fashion while sailing across the wastes.

  I found Apocalypse Girl talking with The Kid and Criss-Cross in the Captain’s Cabin, the three of them instantly falling silent the very second the door opened. Apocalypse Girl’s face was red with embarrassment.

  “We might have to leave,” She sounded quieter than usual. “I can’t take the constant shifting from side-to-side all over the place, it’s fucking horrible. Today, since we were sitting still, it wasn’t too bad, but I don’t want to have to put up with much more. We need to move on.”

  I didn’t want to, but she was right. There were too many people here as it was, The Elephant was overly cramped, and everyone was looking askance at Criss-Cross and The Kid. These factors coupled with the excessive motion sickness that she seemed to be suffering led to the inevitable conclusion that we needed to head out on our own once again.

  October 4th Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  I took Viking aside after breakfast, before The Elephant began lumbering on its way, and asked him for the use of a vehicle.

  “Sure thing, mate,” The blonde giant grinned. “With your missus in the state she’s in I don’t blame you. Take a couple of others with you, though, alright? I’d hate to think that all you’ve got helping you take care of her and the baby are an alien and a mutant. Nothing against those guys, but they’re not likely to be much use when it comes to changing dirty nappies!” The image of Criss-Cross and The Kid elbow deep in poo put a smile on my face.

  So, we took one of The Mech-Tech’s jeeps, striking out more or less on our own; we decided to try to keep pace with The Elephant for as long as we were able, safety in numbers and all… In any case, we were abou
t to leave the vehicle hangar when German Doctor hurried up to us, out of breath.

  “Wait!” German Doctor was clearly in a hurry. “Don’t go, please! At least not without me… You’re going to need a doctor; besides I want to examine your extraterrestrial companion.” Criss-Cross chittered angrily. “With your permission, of course. If you prefer, I’d be happy to just converse with you about your culture, your history, I’ve never met someone like you before!” He crossed his arms, the human gesture seeming somehow more alien with his arms and their extra bends.

  So, German Doctor came along for the ride. I didn’t think much of her reasons, but as they were the same that had led her to leave The Boss, I was reasonably happy about it. We kept near The Elephant, as best as we were able, some terrain that it found tolerable, to our borrowed Jeep became nigh impassable, and vice versa.

  noon

  Apocalypse Girl looked better already. Her all-day variety of morning sickness seemed nowhere near as bad as when we were atop The Elephant. Static kept in constant radio contact, keeping us entertained with her upbeat humour. Criss-Cross kept pace with the Jeep easily, his four legs making a skittering noise as they traversed over the landscape.

  At one point I remember asking German Doctor if Apocalypse Girl’s morning sickness was typical, to be told soundly that every pregnancy is different; hopefully she’ll get over it soon enough, but until then it was queasiness interrupted by the occasional bout of throwing up whatever food she’d managed to choke down. I hated seeing her like this, though closer to ground it seemed far easier. Perhaps it was a variety of sea-sickness after all.