Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 6): June Read Free

that would spread such stories.
“If you don't trust him, why are you going off into the unknown with the blighter?” Ginger asked at one point. I told him that I had my reasons. He nodded his red mop of hair. “Yeah, we've all got someone like that in our lives, or we used to!” He laughed quietly to himself. “Look, I'm only going to say this the once. Your missus is preggers, your mates are barely more than kids themselves. You'd be better off staying here than going off on any half-cocked schemes dreamed up by devilish insane burned up amputees, and you're more than welcome to. At least convince your girl to stay while you bugger off with your demon.”
    I told him that I hoped to convince Apocalypse Girl to stay behind at the Alice Facility once we get there, in fact once we find it, I told Ginger, everybody from Coober's Nest should come and stay there. He shook his head, saying that he preferred living up high these days. Less chance of Dingoes and Dead being able to get in when you're four metres high. It would, he said, be good to have people like us as neighbours then, if we weren't living together.
    evening
Chef could do wonders with Meat-beast, that much was true. When I complemented her, however, she only blushed and vaguely tried blaming the meal's success on various herbs that she had managed to keep on hand. Sister told her that she had never eaten so well in her entire life as here, which shut her up entirely. Her face turned crimson and her mouth opened and closed as if she were a fish gasping for breath, having been yoinked up out of her comfortably moist undersea environment to die on the shore. It took her a while to get over it.
    Dentist pulled out a bottle of whiskey, pouring the six of us a reasonable measure of the liquid each. We toasted the mission and each other, then we went off to sleep. Tomorrow would bring a new day, dark and gloomy as ever. Somewhere, in the distance, a Dingo shriekhowled.
June 4 th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Chef made sure we went off with a decent breakfast under our belts, passing a package of jerked Meat-beast to me to stuff into my already full backpack before I descended the rope ladder to Scout's Land Rover.
    There was room enough for the six of us, even if it was a tight squeeze. Scout and Disciple took the front two seats, the rest of us crammed into the back like sardines. We drove through the remains of Coober Pedy, slowing as we drove past the mine where we had lost our truck. It was gone. Disciple pointed out the obvious, that there were other survivors around, not living in the Nest. As we drove, I felt eyes upon me, but when I looked there seemed only darkness through the window looking back at me.
    We drove onwards, leaving the town behind us as we travelled, following the few road signs that we could make out that told us how to get to Alice Springs. Nobody spoke a word.
In time we came to the Dingo Fence, or what remained of it. Once, it had been designed to keep dingoes on the other side, now it lay in a trampled, wrecked heap. Scout told us that when she had first seen the fence like this, she had assumed that the Dead had knocked it over, maybe in vast numbers coming down from up north. That night she saw her first Dingo. After that, she said, she reconsidered her opinion.
    noon
A few short kilometres north of the fence, we found a Meat-beast beside the road and took the opportunity to carve off a few fresh steaks for our lunch. Disciple walked around the mutant cow, swinging his walking stick from side to side complaining that we were wasting time. Apocalypse Girl told him to shut his mouth, she was not going to live on jerky alone for the rest of this trip. If we could have fresh meat, we were going to make the most of it. If Disciple didn't like that, then he could, she said, quite frankly go and fuck a goat, provided he could find one un-mutated.
    Further on down the road, however, we found a large mob of Dead, swarming around what looked like a