August 15
th
Year 1 A.Z.
morning
The Queen, it seemed, was not amused. The previous evening's entertainment had done wonders for the morale of her city, but for her personally, I could only speculate. Once more, during breakfast, she had tried to convince us that Apocalypse Girl would be safer left behind. Once again, I had to point out to her that in no way was I letting her out of my sight. It had gotten bad enough, at one point, that I almost feared for my life, as The Queen quivered in rage. The nearest pair of guards gripped their spears tight enough that their knuckles grew white under the pressure. One of these, eyeing my katana, licked his lips nervously. His glance flickered between my blade, The Queen and his partner. His partner simply stared ahead at the wall, listening for his cue to jump in and likely die for his Queen.
Thankfully for all concerned, that cue never came, as Her Majesty decided to turn away fuming, stating in no uncertain terms that, should Apocalypse Girl not return, that it was on nobody's heads but our own as she stalked back to her own chambers.
“All of the local groups of survivors, such as those led by this Master, have been cooperating with The Queen and assisting us in implementing many of her ideas,” Butler began, after the mood of the room returned to something approaching normality. “However, not everyone agrees with her methods. After our little excursion there are a great many people living within the city that are beginning to wonder exactly how safe they are with the Dead locked away in many of the buildings nearby.”
“I can't exactly blame them, that's something you guys should have taken care of months ago!” Apocalypse Girl told him. “It's not like you don't have the manpower, or the weaponry for the job, after all!”
Nodding, Butler continued. “You're right, of course. The former Sheriff had planned it all out, you see. He and his group were going to begin with cleaning out the very place we all nearly died, then go building to building, floor by floor. He was a … very methodical man.” He removed his spectacles, puffing on them and giving them a good wipe. “I personally didn't like him, very few people did. Many were terrified of the man, in truth. The Queen, though... When he failed to return from his venture to the airport a couple of weeks after the onset of Winter something seemed to snap within her.”
noon
We left the city and headed to the south-west along what had once been a major roadway. Considering the fact that Apocalypse Girl, Apprentice and I were all locally born and raised, we recognised many of the landmarks. Most of these had been marred or outright destroyed by Dead or violence between groups of survivors and bandits, perhaps, or maybe even Dead-eating Ghouls.
We walked past an army barracks that had been stripped very early on, probably in the very first days. Here and there we spotted a couple of Dead, shuffling around doing their thing. These we ignored for the most part, at least until a few drew near, then out came my sword and Machete's blade and the Dead fell down.
“This feels wrong,” Apocalypse Girl pointed out. “No cars on the road at all, but other than that it looks like it could almost be normal.” I glanced around, seeing a pair of faces up in one window looking out at us. I raised a hand in greeting and they vanished. Apocalypse Dog barked. Beyond the south-western gate of the massive patchwork wall surrounding the city and several suburbs the Dead still roamed, the Living still struggled to survive. The pair of faces could have belonged to anyone. We kept on walking.
After a couple of hours we came to an old, abandoned police station. As the sun was already slipping down towards the horizon we decided to check it out and maybe stay the night. Our destination was very close indeed, but it is always better to make your approach in the morning.
From the outside the police station looked almost like an enormous aeroplane hangar, but when we ventured inside, gently closing the door as we passed through, it took on an entirely different aspect. “Hold it right there!” A voice came from above.
evening
Our hosts were more than gracious, offering us a meal and a room that we can all share. The room turned out to be a jail cell, but more than large enough for the five of us and we were assured that the door would remain open at all times.
The leader wanted to chat with me alone, though Apocalypse Girl would not hear of it, and so there we were, the three of us, in what was once an interrogation cell. However, instead of the good-cop/bad-cop routine, we were treated to fresh coffee and a chat.
It turned out that the dozen people that lived at the station were a satellite group of The Master's own, much larger group. Several had come from Adelaide, a couple even going so far as to suggest that the Queen is a bit loopy. A couple had come from the west, across the vast expanse of desert separating South from Western Australia.
When Apocalypse Girl asked about The Master, however, the leader simply smiled. “He's a good bloke,” He began. “A local, he got a bunch of people together and busted into the nearest shopping centre, big fucking place. Said he got the idea from an old horror movie. Anyway, you'll get to meet him tomorrow.”
After our chat we were escorted back to our cell, where the scent of heaven above awaited us. A pretty girl walked past, smiling at us both, as Apocalypse Girl and I entered to see a big pot of stew being portioned out into bowls. “What meat is that?” Apocalypse Girl asked. Our escort was quite unable to tell us exactly, though his description matched that of a Meat-Beast. He was just getting around to the 'it tastes way better than I've made it sound' part when I stopped him to interject that we're more than familiar with the creatures.
Our escort grinned, reached into his pocket. “Take this, my man, for after dinner.” As my hand drew near his own, he dropped a joint into it. I had to chuckle. This would be the first time I had smoked weed in a jail cell, after all.
August 16
th
Year 1 A.Z.
morning
I was awoken rather rudely by a canine tongue invading my nostrils accompanied by the sounds of merriment and laughter from Apocalypse Girl and Machete. Scout and Apprentice smiled from behind the bars of our cell. “Breakfast time, I said!” Apocalypse Girl berated me. “As if you could even hear me over all that fucking snoring...” I got up, stretched, yawned and walked out of the cell.
“She's got a point, you know,” Scout told me as I passed by. As if she has any right to talk! She and Apprentice had been making enough noise to keep everybody awake in the entire fucking station. I told them both this, Scout blushing bright red in a flustered attempt to make a comeback. Apprentice simply hid her face in her robe.
Breakfast was more of a coffee and toast affair, then the pretty girl from last night showed us where to go, a straight shot down the road, barely a kilometer away, saying that we'd likely be challenged in a matter of minutes. The leader of the police station group had radioed through to the main base last night, so they knew to expect us.
Coming across a barricade made primarily from fencing from local housing, a voice called out from behind; “Well, you've got a dog with you! You've gotta be the group we're waiting for, then.” A reasonably large portion of fence swung outwards on a large hinge, allowing us entry. “Come on in!” Apocalypse Dog trotted through, exploring, sniffing at everything within range of his snuffling nose.
noon
The gate guard waved us on through and on we went, coming at last to a massive squat structure, a small tower sat in central position. Three wings stretched out from it, two short, one long. The carpark surrounding the main building was bare, not a vehicle in sight, but people wandered back and forth calling greetings to one another, as well as us.
As we approached the entrance to the tower we were stopped by a guard. “Sorry, guys, no guns inside the centre.” She sounded bored. “Your sword is fine, though. The Master just doesn't like guns in his presence. Feel free to leave them with me and pick them up when you're done with your meeting, if you'd like.”
We handed over all of our firearms, albeit reluctantly, and were allowed inside. “Take the elevator to the top floor, that's where you'll find him,” The guard told us as we went in. This place, in stark contrast to the shopping centre in the city, was almost untouched by the apocalypse. Nowhere could there be seen puddles of blood and excrement, nor were there ravening hordes of Ghouls. Instead, the walls and floors were as clean as the ceiling, people wandered back and forth going about their business.
Finding the elevator was not difficult, the ride up to the top a short one. The hall led to a large double door, guarded by a single empty stool. A moment later I heard a flushing sound and a guard came rushing past us, nearly bowling Machete over in his excitement to open the door for us.
The Master sat at his desk, leaning forward ever so slightly when he realised that we were new people in his domain. “That's a nice sword, sir. Do you mind if I take a quick look?” He asked me through his greying goatee. I agreed, slowly drawing the blade, extending it to him to inspect. “Beautiful. I've always wanted a katana, myself. Not one of those piece of shit things you used to be able to pick up for a couple of hundred bucks, mind you. I'm talking about a genuine, Japanese-made sword now.”
I sheathed my blade. “Anyway, where are my manners? Welcome to my Domain,” He shook each of our hands, telling us all to sit and make ourselves at home. “There's an urn full of boiling water on the bench over there, help yourselves to tea or coffee. I should probably let you know the situation here. Take a look around, then come back after dinner.”
evening
A long while later, we left The Master's office. We found ourselves wandering the centre almost the way people had, before. “I've missed this,” Apprentice mused. “I used to come in here at least a couple of times a week just to look at crap I'll never ever need, not in a million years.” Apocalypse Girl chuckled. Scout simply shook her head.
“I used to come here just about every day after school,” I told them. “It was a pretty awesome place to meet people, once upon a time. Also it was a pretty awesome place to pick up drugs and women.”
The Master had told us nothing that we hadn't already figured out for ourselves. See anything Dead, put it down. Don't steal, don't lie, don't kill. Respect the local authority. That was about it, at least when it came to rules. When I mentioned that we had been sent by The Queen of Adelaide, he grew suddenly silent. Standing, he turned to stare out of the window, towards the city.
“As long as that's all she wants, that's fine. Travelling and trade between our groups is a brilliant idea, I have to admit, but I fail to see what we might have here that she would want.” The Master considered. “I suppose we'll work that out later. Well, I'll agree to it for now, at least.”
We were allocated a room in the tower, the second-highest floor, that The Master called his 'guest quarters'. There were beds enough to sleep in, comfortable ones, at that. A stove upon which to cook, even a small fridge stocked with beer. All in all, a comfortable enough place to relax overnight, even for a few days.
August 17
th
Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Overnight we were in contact with a couple of friends, via radio. Viking and Valkyrie had been sent on another 'diplomatic mission', they had taken information that we had given them to The Principal. He had, in turn, asked them if they minded making yet another long journey to try and make some sort of deal with The Queen. So, the large blonde couple got a small group together and headed back out into the Dead-filled wider world once again. Viking estimated that they'd probably be arriving in a few days. “Just promise me, whatever happens,
don't
kill this one off!” Viking admonished me as he signed off for the night.
The Colonel had also been in contact, once more insisting that someone there at the AR-18 Facility needed to speak to Apocalypse Girl. Once again, she reached out and turned the radio off before this mysterious stranger could even speak.
The Master, once the sun was up and shining bleakly through the clouds, knocked on our door. Conveniently, we were just sitting down to breakfast, remarking that out-of-date cereals are nearly as good as the fresh stuff had been when his powerful, well-spoken voice echoed through the wood of the door. He asked that we meet him downstairs when we were done with our food, in what had once been the food court.
Nearly twenty minutes later we descended in the elevator. The doors opened with a 'ping' sound, allowing us to exit. Everything had certainly changed around here; the tables and chairs had been torn out to make room for an archery range. The Master stood at one end, showing a young blonde girl the proper way to handle a bow. Several more people practiced, firing arrows at mannequins dragged up from several department stores.
“Not a bad idea,” I greeted him as we approached. The Master nodded towards us, waving a hand in the direction of some practice bows. We each picked one up, firing a brief volley of arrows into a standing row of mannequins.
When my final shaft finally struck home, landing in the face of one of the targets, The Master clapped me on the shoulder. “Man, you suck!” The arrow fell out, clattering to the floor. The one I'd hit was not the one I'd been aiming at. “Good job you've got that sword, hey?” In contrast, Apocalypse Girl's target mannequin bristled with arrows like a motionless, bipedal pincushion.
noon
The Master invited us to share his lunch, so we went back up to his office. His partner handed us each a plate and we sat around the large desk eating fresh Meat-Beast steaks. The young blonde girl, The Master's daughter, joined us as well. I asked why he had thought to come here, to this particular place.
“Food and shelter, mainly. Weapons, too.” The Master began. He smiled. “It was just convenient that it happened over New Years, really. Any other time of year and the Dead would have been swarming all over the place. Instead, it was almost empty. Just another couple of groups of survivors, in the early days. By the time the snow started to fall we had figured out how to operate the generators and there was plenty of fuel for them to begin with.”
Mistress interrupted. “The only real problem we had at first was working out who was in charge. Because there were, oh what was it, four or five different groups set up inside the place, at first we each had our own sections, but it became obvious pretty fucking quickly that we had to cooperate in order to survive.” She smiled. “Eventually we all decided that the person with the best ideas for survival should lead.”
“We had heard, of course, that The Queen had been cleaning up the streets, making things safe for everybody, so we did our part here.” The Master went on. “She's had agents come here a few times asking for this or that. We usually do what she wants, mainly because she has had a lot of good ideas, but she seems to think that she's in charge of everybody.”
Maiden, who had just been quietly munching away on her steak, looked up briefly. “Well yeah, she's had some good ideas. We're still not part of her New World, though. She wouldn't want us anyway. Not now.” She savaged her meat, hacking it into pieces.
“In any case, if she's recognised that we would work better together, I'm willing to listen. She might be a megalomaniac, but that doesn't make her a bad person, am I right?” The Master smiled. Maiden chuckled. “So, I guess this means you're the new Sheriff?” He asked me. “I kind of liked the old one. He was a hard man, you could tell that much, but honest. I don't know what happened to him, though.”
We spent the better part of the afternoon basically just talking bullshit, trading stories from before the rise of the Dead, telling jokes. In general, just having a good time. A rare enough occurrence before the world ended, simply enjoying oneself for a few short hours had become something wonderful, as if it had a touch of nirvana added to it now.
evening
Back in our guest quarters, we prepared for sleep. Apocalypse Girl stared out of the window, looking to the east. Once, she might have seen people going about their business, their day-to-day existences, from this window. Now all she saw was still. I stood next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and she leaned into me. I could see, far away in the distance, a single shambling Dead, shuffling down the road. As I watched, the corpse's head exploded and it fell to the ground, dead once again.
“Do you think that things will ever get back to the way they were before all of this?” Apocalypse Girl asked me, quietly. I looked at the gibbous moon through the window, shining white upon the world beneath. Then I turned, turning Apocalypse Girl with me. Looking out the western window we could see the new, invader moon, glaring at us all angry and red. She sighed. “Probably not.”
Scout and Apprentice were busy quietly entertaining one another in one secluded corner of the room, Machete and Apocalypse Dog playing in another. I held Apocalypse Girl's chin, looking into her eyes. “Not the way things were, no. We'll make something out of it, though. I promise. No more running from the Dead. Or the Living. We'll find somewhere just for us.” She smiled, and a tear ran down her cheek.