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

Archer aside and hurriedly muttered one word to him.  He stopped, staring off into the distance, and nodded, obviously coming up with a plan already.  We needed some kind of armour.
     
 
     
 
     

January 9th Year 1 A.Z.
     
dawn
     
Another dawn patrol with Junior and The Twin found us walking the perimeter while a strange car came up the path to the road.  Junior suggested that it was one of the farmers that Fat Dealer had gone to find the other day, which seemed fairly likely.  In any case we were distracted by Apocalypse Girl who came running from the direction of the river, shouting that we needed everyone NOW!
     
 
     
Rushing off to the river, we saw that the pair of scouts that Kindly Lady and Fat Dealer had sent out the other day had returned, bringing company with them.  Not exactly the sort you would invite to dinner though, more the sort that would insist on eating the host if you did.  The two guards from the other day, and The Kid were already firing arrows into the thick of the host, most turning the leading row of Dead into pincushions, putting two or three down, but doing no real damage.
     
 
     
I shouted out that they needed to pick their targets, and the massive horde of Dead turned slightly towards the noise.  An arrow flew past my head, to drive deep into the skull of a Dead shambling in my direction.  I ordered The Twin to hold back and keep firing, while Junior and I together with the other guards kept distracting them with sounds.  As they were nearing the clay pits, it seemed a good idea to utilise the terrain to our advantage.  By the time Archer's patrol arrived and Apocalypse Girl had returned with reinforcements from the barn we had a third of the horde down, with the rest quite well stuck in the mud.
     
 
     
“Well done, live target practice!”  Archer exclaimed loudly when he arrived.  This caused the Dead nearest him to attempt twisting in order to get at him.  Several of these simply fell over, some catching others on their way down.  If not for the horrific stench and the fact that these things wanted to eat us it would have been really quite funny.  As it was we took Archer's advice and used the stuck Dead as targets.
     
 
     
The scouts, now that their collective bacon had been saved, reported that they had not been able to find much in the way of supplies, but they had found a ridiculous amount of salt left in several of the shops they had raided.  As I wondered why that might be useful I heard one of the cows lowing.
     
 
     
The newcomers from the farms, who had arrived in the car, also joined us by the river, and introduced themselves.  One woman, two men had come in the new vehicle, the younger of the men a butcher, the older a farmer by long standing family tradition.  Farmer claimed that the woman, barely out of her teen years, was his wife, while eyeing the other local girls carefully.  Butcher eyed the animals just as carefully, and asked me if we had a slaughterhouse that we were using.  I told him that we didn't, at least as far as I knew, have one, and to see Fat Dealer about it.  He nodded, saying that he assumed I was in charge because I was the one barking orders in defence of the commune.  Archer, coming past at that moment, laughed and told him that I was new, but unofficially in charge of defence of the community.  He also said that a slaughterhouse was a brilliant idea, and that then, with a couple fewer cows, there would be hides available to make some form of personal protection from.  Farmer's Wife squeaked in a tiny voice that she knew a thing or two about working with leather, and that she would help.  Farmer looked pissed at that.  Apparently he doesn't like his tiny young wife talking to people, or offering to help, but clearly he knows the situation well enough by now to know that we all need to pull together to get shit done.
     
 
     
noon
     
After lunch was more archery training.  Archer had indeed made a few