Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 1): January Read Online Free PDF Page A

younger members of the commune decided to hang with The Kid while he was recovering, and after dinner the joint Fat Dealer rolled was shared only by Kindly Lady, Apocalypse Girl, Junior, Archer, The Twin and myself.  The musicians were practicing over in the corner, and we quietly talked among ourselves.  Apocalypse Girl asked Fat Dealer where it was he had gone.  He told us that he was trying to locate some of the local farmers, as nobody at the commune actually knew anything about animal husbandry, other than keeping chickens.  He managed to find someone who was on their way, would be there tomorrow, apparently.  Kindly Lady also told us, when Junior asked, about the two she had sent out scouting the day before.  We needed to know if there were any other survivors around, she told us, so that we could band together with them and become stronger as a result.  Seems a reasonable idea to me too, thinking about it that way.  After all, when the Dead are walking don't we Living need to stick together?
     
 
     
Everybody seemed fairly hopeful, thinking that maybe the worst was over, we might be able to even make a decent life for ourselves out here, provided we can acquire the right people.  We were relaxing, Apocalypse Girl and I considering retiring, debating whether we need worry about keeping a separate watch among the two of us now that we have gotten to know these people when The Kid staggered out of his room gasping for help before collapsing immobile on the floor.
     
 
     
Immediately Archer and Junior sprang into action.  I grabbed the closest weapon to hand, Valet's old crowbar, and followed them into the room.  Five youngsters had gone into The Kid's room, all but one still in death, vomit covering all of their chests.  The one was beginning to move, until Archer put a shaft through his head.  Junior and I proceeded to make sure the others stayed dead, my crowbar sticking messily into the skull of my second.
     
The Kid, it turned out, was still alive, and was recovering from whatever had happened.  He was saying that one of his friends had handed him a joint, telling him that since he was injured, he got to light it up.  Everybody had a decent toke as it was passed around, and as the last one in the circle was handing it back to The Kid, the first to take a toke started coughing far too hard, eventually vomiting, as the second began coughing, and as the third started coughing, the first was dead.  The second vomited, and then the other two began to cough and chunder as well.  The Kid decided that was a good time to get help, but he was having trouble breathing.  He made it out, and as we were crushing his friends' skulls he was being given mouth to mouth by Kindly Lady.  As he was telling us this, he looked gratefully in her direction, as did we all, just in time for us to see her collapse to the floor, convulsing.  She died horribly, clearly in great agony, and not a single one of us could do anything about it.
     
 
     
We were all too stunned to do anything about it, until Apocalypse Girl splattered her brains all over the floor with The Bommyknocker.
     
 
     
 
     

January 8th Year 1 A.Z.
     
dawn
     
We buried our dead as early as we could manage.  The Kid had volunteered himself for quarantine, as clearly he must be infected, since he inadvertently caused the death of six of his fellows.  He looked almost completely healthy to me, however, but I was there last night, I saw what had happened, dealt with the consequences of it.  The mood surrounding the entire compound was depressing.  Junior and I still had a patrol that morning, but due to the funeral we got that started a little later than usual.  As we left, The Twin followed, snatching up a bow and handful of arrows, asking if she could join our patrol.  Wordlessly we agreed, and the three of us began our rounds.  Apocalypse Girl was busily organising a work party to collect some more clay, while she and Fat Dealer fashioned