Free Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 9): September by Dave Rowlands

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