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

Static unwrapped the bandage covering his wounds, wiped the injuries down with more of Viking’s beer, and rewrapped the injuries with fresh bandages.  The wounds seemed fairly clean at least, and would no doubt begin healing properly soon enough.
     
    evening
    My squad had finished their scouting duties for the afternoon and we were all relaxing in the captain’s cabin.  Deciding that Viking’s homebrew was far too valuable to waste drinking, at least until we can get him to make some more, we acquired the entire supply and now had in under lock and key.  People were unhappy, naturally, though upon seeing Soldier’s injuries they kept their opinions to themselves.  They had other forms of inebriation, anyway.  Plenty of people had their own recipes for hooch, and there were more than a few that had managed to get hold of some greenish combustible vegetable matter.  Besides which, we would be back at AR-18 soon enough.
     
    I spent the better part of an hour on the radio with Apocalypse Girl, she told me that her mother was unhappy with our delay, wanted us back already.  I told her that we’d be back within a day, two at the most, but that we had learned a thing or two about Sydney’s new inhabitants.  Not as much as I’d have liked, but still… it was better than the nothing that we had before.
     
    I also told her that we’d found something else… something strange.  I didn’t want to tell her that we’d found seven different Dead heads that were identical, not over the radio.  So, something strange it had to be for now.  Rest assured, The Boss would be happy with the intel that we had gathered, as would German Doctor.  The rest of our conversation was something that I don’t want to record for whatever, or whoever, might end up reading this.  Some stuff is personal, after all.  Still, without her by my side, I felt as if I was missing my right arm.
     
    Soldier told me a few more things about how Melbourne had been progressing, once he had rested up some more.  Apparently The Mech-Techs had decided to leave once Doctor had made a deal with The Puller, resulting in a secure travel route between Melbourne and Brisbane, completely bypassing Sydney by going along the coast.  This meant that The Mech-Techs had no real purpose there, and so they went in search of their mighty, fierce leader, my right hand man, Viking.
     
    Now that Viking was working for Apocalypse Mum, so too were the Mech-Techs.  Whether she wanted them was another kettle of fish altogether.  I had no doubt that she’d find some use for them, at the very least she’d be in need of competent mechanics, and Stutter and Nutter had a way of seeing things, making vehicles out of almost nothing, sometimes.  The pair were geniuses, though a little off-kilter.  I wondered idly how they’d get on with the pair of technicians at AR-18.  They seemed to be birds of a feather.

September 15 th Year 1 A.Z.
    morning
    The silhouette of Ayer’s Rock loomed in the distance before us as The Elephant lumbered nearer to our destination.  I radioed ahead to inform them of our imminent arrival, also letting them know that we have injured that need attention and that German Doctor would be more than interested in our findings about the Terraformers.  I decided to keep the identical Dead heads that we were keeping in a few spare jars to myself for the time being; German Doctor would likely have her hands full with identifying the brown gunk that the Terraformers coat their weapons with.
     
    Apocalypse Girl jumped on the radio at their end, and I quickly hustled Static out, telling her that Soldier would need some company.  She seemed on the verge of questioning me when I shut the door to The Elephant’s radio room almost in her pretty face.  She told me that everything back at base was all over the place; it seemed as though everybody was running in every direction at once and nobody was telling her anything.  Something big was going down,