“I'm staying here,” She said by way of greeting. “These people need me more than you guys do, I need to teach these two at least how to take care of themselves. Besides, we can keep in touch relatively easily with one of us here. We should use this as a kind of headquarters for now, until you get to Canberra. If you find any survivors send them here. We will have the immediate area under constant satellite surveillance, so we'll see them before the Dead do.”
I asked Smart Guy just how he had managed to rig satellites that could see through the cloud cover. He responded with some vague incomprehensible gibberish in science speak, which Smart Girl translated for us. These were spy satellites that they had hacked into, with ridiculously high resolution cameras and a handy little-known sonic gadget that could bore a tiny hole through any amount of cloud cover, imperceptible to any below, that was just perfect for ridiculously high resolution cameras. Smart Guy told us that the country that had made the satellites they were currently using had no more use for them.
The Colonel told us that she had heard of those particular sonic gadgets, and that was not all they were capable of. She would elaborate no further other than to say simply that they would be of little use against the Dead.
Smart Girl served up breakfast, of all things steak and eggs, and we ate it all, savouring every glorious bite. Over breakfast, she asked me if I wanted to help out with the retrieval of another group of survivors. I asked her for the details, and she shyly asked me to follow her into one of the computer labs.
On the main screen she pulled up the latest satellite view of the area. They had barricaded themselves up in a pub, of all places, and according to their latest text message were being slowly overrun. They had fled to the roof of the pub, via a balcony. The Dead had found their way to the upper floor, and were currently battering down the door to the balcony. The other danger was that this group of four was in serious danger of freezing to death. Another day in the open would do it. The pub, like so many in Australia, looked to have once been a church. I suggested to Smart Girl that she tell them to get to the steeple and hang the fuck on, and asked when do we leave. She smiled, saying that the pilot was just about to take off. I should grab a partner, head down to the armoury and grab some weapons, then up to the helipad, she said.
noon
Helicopters are fucking noisy, let me tell you! Took Junior with me, grabbed a couple of assault rifles that The Colonel showed us how to use, took our .45s as well, plus plenty of extra ammo. I had hoped to be able to come up with some plan with Junior on the way to the new group, but the noise of the rotors was too intense for any form of conversation. Pilot flew the chopper with ease, despite the shitty weather, and before too long we arrived at the pub. Sure enough, four of them, still clothed for summer, clung to the steeple for dear life, as Dead poured out into the balcony below them. Several of the Dead looked very fresh, presumably from this very group.
The Dead were trying their rotting little hearts out to get to the four Living on the roof of the pub, ignoring the helicopter almost directly above them. Junior and I shot the nearest and most immediately dangerous, and Pilot manoeuvered the helicopter closer to the roof. The survivors were all terrified, but one by one they came to their senses and moved towards the chopper. Junior stood on the landing skid, holding on with one hand, while assisting the survivors one by one inside. One older man, with a massive red beard, flecked now with grey snow, a young woman, and two children, a boy and girl, around ten years old maybe. All four began shivering as soon as we pulled away from the pub, so Junior and I handed them the blankets we had brought with us.
mid-afternoon
The four were all from the same family, as it turned out, Boy and Girl were cousins, the woman was their Auntie. Redbeard was Auntie's cousin, which I suppose also made him the kids uncle. They had planned a family reunion over the summer holidays, only it turned out their eldest just happened to have died during the celebrations on the 2nd. They hadn't heard any news reports being far too busy partying, and great-grandma who had, mere hours before, been boasting that she still had all her own teeth started chewing on the youngest member of their clan, a six week old baby girl, as a small group of other Dead just happened along, perhaps drawn by the sounds of merriment and revelry. And screaming babies in agony being torn apart by their freshly Dead ancestors. They had only managed to stay alive by quickly barricading themselves first inside the pub, then creating ever more blockades for the Dead to overcome as they headed deeper and higher into the pub's innards. Every barricade they lost someone, until only the four of them remained. Girl was silent, staring into nothingness, as this tale was recited. Boy just wept uncontrollably. Auntie was barely older than the two kids herself, it turned out, and Redbeard...well, he was the one pointed at by the rest of the family, who used him as a caution for their kids. “You don't want to be like Uncle Redbeard, do you kiddies?” That type of thing. Not a bad guy, just someone who has never managed to get anywhere with his life.
Smart Guy showed them to their suites, the next corridor along from where we made our new home, and they made good use of their new abodes. When he was done with the new arrivals, he took me into a computer lab. “Damn,” He began, “I had higher hopes for that group. One useful specimen, perhaps two. The children are useless for now, they need to grow up in order to be able to use a gun.” He sighed. I took that moment to inform him that things have changed dramatically. The kids can be every bit as useful as the adults, given a chance, and the right education. There were weapons in the armoury that the kids could learn to use easily enough. “Maybe you're right,” He allowed, “In any case, we will still need more people here. Many many more people.” He drifted off into his own mind, thinking about whatever it is Smart Guys like him think of at such times.
evening
Pilot came to dinner this evening, first to thank Junior and I for helping him reel in the new group, and also to tell us that he would be away for perhaps as much as a week, depending upon weather, doing the rounds, checking up on other survival centres that he knew of, some of which he knew were occupied, some he expected should be. In any event, he said, we needed to set up some kind of survival network between all of these groups. If we failed to do that, we were all fucked. He was leaving in the morning, he said, and asked if anyone from our group wanted to volunteer to go along. Junior almost shouted that he would come, and Pilot smiled. Junior asked if Pilot could teach him how to fly, maybe? Pilot's smile broadened. The new group kept to themselves over dinner, Redbeard at least coming over to me after he had finished eating to thank me once more for saving what remained of his family. Anything he could do to help around here, he told us, he was happy to oblige.
February 7th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
The kids from the new group had trouble staying asleep, now that they were in a place of safety they seemed to need to wake up screaming the entire facility down every half-hour or so. Auntie managed to soothe them back into the land of slumber each time, however. Tired and overwrought from their ordeal, perhaps, and in time they would settle down somewhat.
At breakfast, Redbeard asked Smart Guy where they got all the food from. The Smart Couple looked at one another, Smart Girl shyly pointing out that if we're all going to live together we all needed to know everything. Smart Guy nodded, then suggested that after breakfast we all gather in the main computer lab so he could explain some things. Junior and Pilot stocked up on supplies for their journey, food and water, taking a bare minute to say goodbye to everyone. The Twin, hugging Junior, told him to make sure not to crash the chopper, then they left.
We all followed Smart Guy into the lab, where he brought up the schematics for the entire facility on the main screen, which encompassed an entire wall. Apocalypse Girl let out a low whistle seeing the sheer magnitude of this place, as clearly we only occupied the upper three levels. The first floor was basically no more than the main building of the compound above us, the second containing the computer labs and one of the primary dining halls. The third floor down, where we made our homes, was massive, clearly we had barely scratched the surface of it. Everything under the third floor had been greyed out on the screen, which meant only that it was currently unused. He went on to explain that neither he, Smart Girl nor Pilot actually had clearance to access anything lower than the third floor initially, but that after the rest of their team had died he had hacked his way into the system and unlocked everything.
The Twin asked him exactly how far down this place went, and he simply shrugged. The Colonel wanted to know what the purpose of this facility had originally been, and he shrugged once more. Redbeard asked again about the food, and Smart Guy zoomed in on a massive section of the third floor we hadn't yet investigated. He explained that this area had enough preserved food in long term storage to feed several thousand people for a very long time. The Colonel asked exactly what he meant by long term storage. He smiled and shrugged once more. Then he told us that each of the twelve habitation floors contained their own food storage area, all of which had been fully stocked long before they had arrived here. Smart Girl told us that the government had actually taken the potential threat of nuclear annihilation seriously enough to build several of these facilities around the country, but that nobody had thought to do more than prepare them for use when the Dead rose. As far as they knew this was the only facility of its kind actually being used. They had remote computer access to the other four, but there was no activity from any of them.
I asked how the hell they managed to power this place, and Smart Guy panned the image on the screen all the way to the bottom of the facility, showing geothermal generators leeching heat from the core of the planet itself, transferring the heat energy gathered into usable electricity. We could easily survive in this place, practically forever. The doors were designed to be sealed from the inside with ease, and unsealed almost as easily. We had food, water, shelter...impenetrable fucking shelter! We had access to satellite surveillance systems that could break through the heaviest cloud cover with ease, as well as military grade weaponry. We had to keep this place, above all, secure. Looking over at The Colonel, I could tell she was thinking the same thing.
noon
The Colonel was insisting on weapons training after lunch, for absolutely everybody, including the two children that we had rescued. The Boy was an average shot, Auntie too. The Girl, however, was immediately terrible. She hit a target, even in the head, but the one she was aiming at, indeed even the target in the next row, both were blissfully uninjured. The Colonel instantly took her pistol away, promising to spend time one-on-one with her to help her. I was grateful for the fact that meant I was no longer in any danger of being hit by a stray round during group practice, at least temporarily. Apocalypse Girl was having a small amount of difficulty, due to her injured arm she could hold a gun with only her right hand. The Twin was trying out various guns, pistols, rifles. Her aim was always very good, perfect with a sniper rifle in fact, but she maintained that she just did not feel completely comfortable with a gun. She missed her bow.
The Colonel disappeared for a few minutes, and we continued shooting practice targets. She returned with a compound bow and quiver of arrows which she promptly handed to The Twin, who took it gratefully, smiling all the while as she tested the bow. The Colonel told her where to find the arrows, telling her she really didn't need any more practice with a bow, other than to familiarise herself with the new weapon. She did, however, insist that The Twin continue with her firearms training as well.
Redbeard proved a minor prodigy, as he at least claimed to have never used a gun before, yet there he was blasting away at targets with a pair of .45s, with surprising accuracy. I still needed both hands on the weapon to keep it steady.
evening
At dinner, the question of exactly how the new group had managed to stay alive and uneaten for an entire month arose. Auntie and Redbeard glanced at each other, then The Children, seeing them blissfully chewing away on roast pork and utterly uninterested in the conversation before responding. They had, at first, been able to contain the situation, by simply locking up the initial Dead one, and locking out the wandering Dead who had first arrived, but the baby somehow managed to infect her mother a couple of days after dying. The mother had insisted that she was not Dead, despite the fact that she had begun to rot before their eyes. By the time the mother had died, and risen as Dead, three days later after a familiar sounding fever, more had arrived outside. They locked mother and child Dead up in the front bar of the pub, after having already moved all the remaining food upstairs and barricaded the staircase as best they could.