There seemed nothing but dry, empty terrain before us, though we found a handy Meat-Beast on the way. Driver parked The Elephant over the Meat-Beast, hit a couple of buttons and manipulated a few levers and The Elephant squatted over the former cow. Mech-Techs lined the upper decks, manning the weapons placed strategically around it and a crew of four dropped almost onto the Meat-Beast’s back with large knives, carving off great hunks of flesh.
noon
Ahhh, fresh Meat-Beast steak for lunch… A delectable meal indeed. Not something that we dined on frequently at AR-18, but my favourite dish of Apocalyptic Australia. The Meat-Beast had been butchered in short order, we were back on the road almost before we stopped. At least that was how it had seemed.
After travelling for another few kilometres, we discovered signs of the Dead. A large group had shuffled through here, that was certain. Viking, Giant, Scar and I were examining their tracks while Wall and Maori followed in their bare footsteps. Every other group that we had come across had been at least partially clothed, I think every Dead one I had seen had been wearing shoes. This was a gritty, sandy dirt that had been trampled by many thousands of bare feet.
The sounds of a pair of motorcycles heralded the return of my two scouts, both of whom were signalling like crazy as they approached. Riding their bikes up into the garage, the pair then ran up to us, sheer terror on their faces.
“They’re coming! They heard the bikes and they’re coming for us!” Wall looked as though he had seen his very own personalised Death. “They should be here within the hour, and fuck me there are a lot!”
I ordered everyone back into The Elephant, and we began to make preparations for a siege of the Dead.
evening
The horde came, as Wall predicted, almost an hour after their return. Stutter and Nutter seemed far calmer than they had any time I’d seen the Dead mentioned around them. Asking them why, Nutter simply said that there was next to no way that they’d be able to make it anywhere near any of us. He was spot on there, that’s for certain.
How many there were I have no idea. It was far from the largest group of the Dead that I had seen, that honour belonged to the carpet of Death that had followed us all out of Melbourne after our first trip there. This mob was different, somehow. More than that they were all naked, though that was bizarre in and of itself. How a group this large and this naked would have come to be I have no idea.
As they approached, I took up a position manning a large-calibre machine gun. In all honesty, normally I would have preferred to be down in the thick of it, slicing away with my sword, but in this case I felt much more secure up here with all of this mounted firepower.
The Dead were many times many, but we had plenty of ammunition. More than enough. Dead heads exploded as we opened up on them, showering their shambling, smelly companions with brains and tiny bits of skull. Not that their companions were in any position to complain, as within mere seconds they were brought low as well.
The massacre, as I hesitate to refer to it as a battle, lasted only a short time, maybe an hour, maybe slightly more. The blasted things just kept on coming. There seemed no end to them whatsoever. Eventually, though, we realised that no more were coming, and that those that had come weren’t moving any more.
I went down to the ground with my men as Static and Driver prepped The Elephant to move on, back to our original heading. Together we poked and prodded at the rotting remnants that lay before us. There was something…
“Hey Chief!” Maori called. I wandered over to him. “Looks like we’ve got a couple of twins here,” He was correct, the two deceased Dead ones before him did indeed look the same, the only real difference being the locations of the head wounds that had destroyed them. Viking and Scar drew near.
“This is weird,” Scar sounded concerned. “These two look just like that one, there,” He pointed. It was indeed another Dead ringer. “Triplets, maybe?”
I suggested that they take some samples back to AR-18, maybe German Doctor might be able to make some sense out of the bloody things. I was more than a little concerned, but then since meeting Apocalypse Girl my world had thoroughly changed. The Dead coming back to try eating everyone was a small part of it, really.
The Elephant moved on, towards AR-18. We’d be there in a day, perhaps two. As long as there aren’t any more delays, that is.
Strange… As I sit here writing this, a helicopter has been spotted by one of the lookouts. A helicopter that seemed to be carrying a caravan.
September 13th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Back on the proverbial road to AR-18 this morning, no idea what last night’s sighting of a flying caravan might have been about. Static had heard nothing about it on the radio, though the general consensus was that only The Boss would be sending out black helicopters these days. Nobody else seemed to have that particular advantage.
Stutter and Nutter figured that today was the day that they’d divulge the information we’d come all this way to gather; they began to tell us what they’d encountered passing by Sydney.
For starters, they had voted against going there in the first place, only Static calling the pair out as a couple of pansies had solidified their flagging will. Having gotten that part out of the way, Nutter continued.
“Sydney’s fucked man, there’s these weird crystalline looking towers and shit everywhere,” Nutter looked as if he were experiencing it all over again. “We didn’t stick around that long, because these big-arse insect things started coming after us, some of them spitting crap at us.”
After taking a few deep breaths he was able to continue. “Only one of our scouts returned, she was sliced up pretty bad. The wounds were all nasty, infected with some kind of pus that ended up killing her pretty quickly.” He looked as though the scout’s face hovered in front of his own even now.
Static’s eyes looked as though she wanted to cry but had few tears left by now. Stutter informed us quietly that the scout in question had been her sister. Static wiped her eyes as a single tear formed in the corner of each, then excused herself with the pretext that she should be monitoring the radios.
“It gets worse for her, too. Her man was part of the scout group, too.” Nutter told me in a confidential tone. “The guy that The Colonel had put in charge of looking after The School, remember him?” I did. Soldier had been a good man. Solid, dependable. Just the sort that we needed now, in fact. Not that The Mech-Techs were not, they had proven their worth many times over by now, and not just to me. Soldier had been one of The Colonel’s best men.
The pair had very little else to tell us about the Terraformers that had moved in seemingly overnight. Normally I didn’t mind new neighbours, but in this case, I have to admit to more than a little trepidation. All Nutter could do was try to reinforce this concept: “Beware whatever blades or claws these guys have.”
noon
The sun rode high in the sky, occasionally breaking through the still dense cloud cover, bathing the world in brightness for a brief moment before slinking back into gloom. It was still better than the darkest depths of the Winter. The ability to see without a torch, or a flame to attract the Dead, it made survivability a possibility.
I was watching the monitors, waiting for Scar and Giant to come back from a scouting run, when I noticed a cloud of dust in our wake. It was small enough to be one of The Elephant’s scout bikes, but the two for which I still waited had gone on ahead, one on each flank, about a couple of hundred metres to either side of The Elephant.
I kept an eye on the dust cloud as it closed with us. It definitely seemed like someone on a motorbike. I called Static over, pointing to the monitor in question. A moment later she bolted for the helm, almost bowling Driver over in an attempt to wrest control of The Elephant’s gargantuan bulk from him. He threw her to the floor angrily.
“What the fuck?” Driver was furious. “You turn this fucker too quickly and you’ll capsize us you crazy fucking mole!”
Static,
now incredibly embarrassed, tried to slink away. I grabbed her by an arm and led her to a nearby seat, asking a little more subtly what she had had in mind.
“That could be… It might…” She seemed to be having almost more difficulty than Stutter with her words. “I think it might be the rest of the Sydney scout team.”
“Why didn’t you just fucking say so, then?” Driver asked her in a huff. He seemed less annoyed now. Glancing at the monitors ahead, he stopped The Elephant. “They’ll catch us up quickly enough now. I’m not deviating course for anyone, but I don’t mind waiting, long as there aren’t shit-tons of Dead or Dingoes out there.”
evening
The day waned, the sun sinking in the western sky. I stood with Static and Viking on the ground at the rear of The Elephant. We had carefully scoured the sandy terrain, making certain there were no Echidnae or Serpents around, or any other nasty surprises, then settled down to wait for our wayward, prodigal scout.
We heard him long before we saw him, the engine revving overtime. Static tensed up as the bike drew nearer, stopping right in front of us. Soldier dismounted and saluted me with a smile before falling over into Static’s waiting arms.
His left forearm was bloody, having sustained lacerations from some bladed horror. Pus, coloured a deep brown, seeped from the wounds. I ordered Viking to take him up inside and see to having his wounds cleaned while Static and I attended to his bike. Once inside the garage, I scooped some of the brown pus-like substance into a small plastic container, knowing that German Doctor would want to take a look. Soldier’s a tough nut, with any luck he should pull through this. If not, well, we will at least have his body for German Doctor to examine.
September 14th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
There was a problem with cleaning out Soldier’s wound with water; it seemed to generate more pus. Eventually Soldier called enough, claiming that he’d just be happy with a beer. Opening it, he spilled some into his wound; within seconds the pus in the wound began foaming. It overflowed from Soldier’s arm onto the floor as he screamed in agony.
A few minutes later the wound was clean. There was no pus remaining in the largest slash on Soldier’s arm. Astounded, he poured the rest of the beer in the rest of his wounds, gritting his teeth as his arm foamed up. Eventually he passed out from the pain.
Viking and I glanced at one another, he shook his head. The Elephant’s movement generated a slight sway from side to side, gently rocking Soldier’s bed. I hoped that he at least gets a decent amount of rest.
noon
Soldier has been resting peacefully for the last few hours, Static making sure to pop in and look at him every few minutes. I spent several hours staring at the several identical Dead heads that we had found; out of the entire group, there were seven relatively undamaged heads that were exactly the same in every respect. The only difference between them was the wound placement.
“Hey,” Soldier gasped, weakly from the bed. “Never thought I’d see you again,” He sat himself more or less upright, leaning on his uninjured arm. “How’s that lady of yours?” I told him that she was doing very well, though very pregnant. “Awesome. As long as she’s safe.” The smile on his face turned serious. “We need to talk about Sydney, mate.”
“Those fucking monsters that have taken over the place,” Soldier started, “They’re tough… Real fucking tough. Avoid their blades, whatever you do, they’re covered in this brown muck that just feels like its burning.” He looked at his arm. “And apparently only Viking’s own homebrew is the only thing that’ll get it out of your system.”
I asked him how many of the Terraformers he had encountered. He told me that there was only the one. There had been a bunch of insectoid things, they had formed a small structure in record time that the Terraformer used as a platform to open fire on them, using a rapid-fire automatic weapon that seemed to shoot out small spines. He and another scout had slunk around, in an attempt to flank the thing, and it had simply dropped its firearm and pulled a couple of blades from a twin sheath on its back. The next few minutes were a blur, Soldier told me, with the other scout suffering horrendous slashes to her torso, and he had wrestled with the Terraformer. It had slashed up his arm pretty badly with its claws, and Soldier had managed to get away. Barely.
He told me that the things claws were also covered with this brown muck that burned horrendously. Most of the wounds on his arm were from the claws alone, with a single swipe that was clearly a very sharp blade. I watched as Static unwrapped the bandage covering his wounds, wiped the injuries down with more of Viking’s beer, and rewrapped the injuries with fresh bandages. The wounds seemed fairly clean at least, and would no doubt begin healing properly soon enough.
evening
My squad had finished their scouting duties for the afternoon and we were all relaxing in the captain’s cabin. Deciding that Viking’s homebrew was far too valuable to waste drinking, at least until we can get him to make some more, we acquired the entire supply and now had in under lock and key. People were unhappy, naturally, though upon seeing Soldier’s injuries they kept their opinions to themselves. They had other forms of inebriation, anyway. Plenty of people had their own recipes for hooch, and there were more than a few that had managed to get hold of some greenish combustible vegetable matter. Besides which, we would be back at AR-18 soon enough.
I spent the better part of an hour on the radio with Apocalypse Girl, she told me that her mother was unhappy with our delay, wanted us back already. I told her that we’d be back within a day, two at the most, but that we had learned a thing or two about Sydney’s new inhabitants. Not as much as I’d have liked, but still… it was better than the nothing that we had before.
I also told her that we’d found something else… something strange. I didn’t want to tell her that we’d found seven different Dead heads that were identical, not over the radio. So, something strange it had to be for now. Rest assured, The Boss would be happy with the intel that we had gathered, as would German Doctor. The rest of our conversation was something that I don’t want to record for whatever, or whoever, might end up reading this. Some stuff is personal, after all. Still, without her by my side, I felt as if I was missing my right arm.
Soldier told me a few more things about how Melbourne had been progressing, once he had rested up some more. Apparently The Mech-Techs had decided to leave once Doctor had made a deal with The Puller, resulting in a secure travel route between Melbourne and Brisbane, completely bypassing Sydney by going along the coast. This meant that The Mech-Techs had no real purpose there, and so they went in search of their mighty, fierce leader, my right hand man, Viking.
Now that Viking was working for Apocalypse Mum, so too were the Mech-Techs. Whether she wanted them was another kettle of fish altogether. I had no doubt that she’d find some use for them, at the very least she’d be in need of competent mechanics, and Stutter and Nutter had a way of seeing things, making vehicles out of almost nothing, sometimes. The pair were geniuses, though a little off-kilter. I wondered idly how they’d get on with the pair of technicians at AR-18. They seemed to be birds of a feather.
September 15th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
The silhouette of Ayer’s Rock loomed in the distance before us as The Elephant lumbered nearer to our destination. I radioed ahead to inform them of our imminent arrival, also letting them know that we have injured that need attention and that German Doctor would be more than interested in our findings about the Terraformers. I decided to keep the identical Dead heads that we were keeping in a few spare jars to myself for the time being; German Doctor would likely have her hands full with identifying the brown gunk that the Terraformers coat their weapons with.
Apocalypse Girl jumped on the radio at their end, and I quickly hustled Static out, telling her that Soldier would need some company. She seemed on the verge of questioning me when I shut the door to The Elephant’s radio room almost in her pretty face. She told me that everything back
at base was all over the place; it seemed as though everybody was running in every direction at once and nobody was telling her anything. Something big was going down, and soon, but Apocalypse Girl had no idea what it might be.
The final approach to AR-18 was more or less easily accomplished, there were a few Dead swarming around the base of our transport, easily dispatched by our gunners. As we neared our destination, Stutter and Nutter asked me to follow them to the escalator, which they raised to its highest point, amazingly just high enough for us to step neatly onto the top of Ayer’s Rock itself, mere metres away from an awaiting Apocalypse Mum, her beautiful daughter forcing her way past to rush into my arms, while Apocalypse Dog barked his greetings.
noon
German Doctor was fascinated by the small sample of Terraformer liquid that we had managed to acquire before washing it out of Soldier’s wounds with beer, but when she saw the identical Dead heads in their jars she practically wet herself. Foisting the alien sample on a subordinate, she immediately took samples of the flesh and disappeared into her personal laboratory, declaring that nobody should disturb her until she is done, no matter what.
The Mech-Techs, for the most part, were not allowed into the main part of the base, though Stutter, Nutter and Static were permitted, with Viking’s endorsement. Valkyrie greeted the three of them almost with as much enthusiasm as with her husband, she disappeared with Viking into the living quarters soon after we returned.
Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 9): September Page 6