October Read online

  We finally came to the bottom, discovering a trio of corpses that must have been the cause of the busted door; they’d fallen over the railing to their deaths. It was impossible to say which might have been Dead beforehand, so we assumed that two Dead had attacked one Living with enough force to break the door open, then the freshly bitten Living had flung the three of them over and down. The distance had been great enough that the impact had done sufficient damage to their brains to kill the three of them outright.

  evening

  Leading off from the bottom of the stairwell was a corridor with concrete walls, dimly lit, more than enough light for the two of us to see by. It also seemed to stretch out into infinity. I suggested to German Doctor that perhaps we’d discovered another underground facility such as AR-18, where we’d first met. She shrugged, it might be the case, or it might be something entirely different. Not every facility was like AR-18, after all.

  I nodded my agreement. I’d come across a few different places like that, The Think Tank, The Major’s Facility… Even The Queen had a similar place under her Palace. I supposed building one under a hotel was equally as reasonable as building one under a casino. When I voiced that thought, German Doctor suggested that it had been the other way around; the hotel and casino both would have surely been built atop the Facilities. That did make a little more sense.

  Coming to the end of the hallway, we arrived at a junction. To the right, according to a sign, was ‘Aurora’, whatever that might be. Left was ‘Control’. We glanced at the sign, at each other, then headed towards ‘Control’ as it seemed more likely to hold some kind of answers as to what this place might be, what might have been done here.

  ‘Control’ turned out to be a small room with a series of computers inside, with more than enough room for the two of us to spread out our bedrolls and get some sleep. Exhaustion from a day of descending stairs and walking ridiculously long halls had taken its toll and we decided we’d be better served blocking the door with a chair under the handle and sleeping before bothering to examine the room in detail.

  Journal of A.G.

  The Queen told me, when I confronted her on the subject, that she’d had a few Dingoes rounded up and locked away down here after they’d attacked Adelaide when Elder had let them in. The shrieking howls grew louder and more intense to match the sound of Plague-bunnies burrowing through metal walls.

  Apocalypse Dog just cowered in a corner, terrified by the noises. I couldn’t blame him, the poor fella. I wanted nothing more than to join him, really, but in this situation if one of us broke, the others would follow. We had food, with Deathwish’s never-ending supply of baked beans, and cameras trained on the wall that the Plague-bunnies were targeting as their entry point.

  At this stage it was only a matter of time until they broke through. Whatever had caused these bloody things to mutate into their current form I had no idea, even a lone Plague-bunny was potentially lethal. There had to be hundreds making their way through solid steel plating. We could only hope that chewing through the metal would dull their teeth somewhat.

  October 31st Year 1 A.Z.

  morning

  There was no way that we could access the computers in the Control Room other than bringing up a few images on the monitor. After German Doctor fiddled with things a little, she managed to change the still images for video. It appeared to be fairly old, showing normal daily life in a city, children being taken to school, adults going to work, traffic actually moving in an orderly fashion. It showed the world as it had been this time last year, it seemed. Neither of us recognised the city shown, but it seemed a nice place to live out a normal life.

  Seeing as there was absolutely nothing else that we could accomplish in ‘Control’ we decided to slowly make our way up to the junction and move along to whatever this ‘Aurora’ place was. I’d have been grateful for one of the underground superfast trains that we’d discovered at this point, it would certainly have made for a more comfortable journey. We’d have made better time if our muscles hadn’t been sore from all the walking of the last couple of days.

  Eventually we came to a large metal double door which had a palm scanner to one side. I moved to try it, German Doctor swiftly moving to intercept. She reasoned that it would likely raise an alarm if an unauthorised person used this scanner, and since before things went to Hell, I’d been nobody special and she’d been a high-level scientist for a clandestine multinational organisation, and if this place was in any way related, she might have clearance to enter that I lacked. I shrugged and moved aside as she placed her palm on the device.

  Nothing happened. The doors didn’t open, no alarm, nothing.

  noon

  We made our way back to the Control Room, just on the off-chance that there was something that we missed. We opened every drawer and cupboard in the place, finding nothing of any use. A toolbox sat in the corner of the room containing a hammer, screwdriver and pair of pliers. We fiddled with the computer again, watching as people made preparations to celebrate Halloween. It was a little strange, I thought, that this video was showing year-old footage. It might have just been on a loop for the Halloween period, or the week containing that particular evening. Or maybe an entire year.

  I was lost in thought when I realised that German Doctor was gathering the toolbox.

  “If I can’t open it, maybe I can hotwire it,” She muttered. “How hard can it be, after all?”

  We made our way back down the incredibly long hall once again, and she set to work. She lifted the backplate of the palm scanner off of the wall with the screwdriver, revealing the wires behind it. She then cut and stripped some of the wires with the pliers, making certain that there were a few good centimetres of copper at the ends. With a glance to me, seeming to ask if she’s doing this right, not that I’d have any idea, she touched the two bare copper wires together.

  Nothing. Not a spark, no movement in the doors, nothing at all.

  I took the hammer, jammed the claw end between the doors and began pulling with all of my strength. It was surprisingly easier than I expected, and I stumbled into German Doctor, dropping the hammer as the doors separated slightly. Placing our fingers in the gap between them, we each took a door and pulled as hard as we were able. After a few seconds we were able to just walk through. German Doctor and I shrugged at one another.

  evening

  After the doors was more hallway, the concrete turning into natural rock formations before too long, after which it began twisting and turning around. We’d gone from a man-made corridor in a strange underground base with one room and a double door complete with palm scanner to what seemed like a small rocky canyon. The air felt fresh, fresher than anything I’d breathed in a long time in fact.

  Eventually we passed through the rock, into a large field. This seemed nothing like the Wastes that we’d been wandering through for most of the last year. Stars winked and twinkled above, the moon gazed down upon us, full as it had ever been. Just the one moon. No secondary red moon in the sky at all, not a cloud evident above us.

  I turned to look back at where we’d come from, nothing but sheer rock face. German Doctor put her hand on it; it sank through as if there was nothing to stop it.

  “Hologram, it seems.” She sounded both impressed and concerned. She then moved her arms about until finding some actual rock, using the hammer and screwdriver to make a small mark so that we’d know where we’d come in from.

  We heard screaming in the distance, not the cries of terror and pain that we had become accustomed to, but the exuberance of children pretending to be frightened by each other. On the far side of the field people were running about, one group seeming to chase another, then turning it around and being chased in turn. A moment later I realised that they were all wearing costumes.

  Then it hit me; the video feed in the Control Room had been live.

  I told German Doctor my thoughts, we hid our weapons inside the holographic field, behind a rock large enough to accommoda
te a couple of assault rifles, several pistols and my katana, along with our packs.

  We strode across the field, aiming for a small group of adults that were supervising the children. One young woman looked up as we approached, tugged on the sleeve of an older gentleman.

  The older man turned to see us, raised his eyebrows in surprise, but greeted us in a friendly enough manner.

  “Hello there, strangers! Welcome to Aurora!”

  Journal of A.G.

  We watched on a screen as the first Plague-bunny made its way through the wall, plopping onto the floor amongst a small quantity of metal shavings. It shook its head, then exploded as a second fell to the floor near its now dead companion. That one was shot as well, the guards taking care to kill them almost as soon as they landed. After a very short time there were too many to deal with, though. Five, then ten, then it seemed a million of the little bastards swarmed through an ever-expanding breach in the wall.

  The Queen’s face paled in terror as she watched her guards overwhelmed in an instant, heard their screams rise in intensity then cut off abruptly as they died to thousands of tiny sharp teeth gnawing at their flesh.

  I grabbed Giant and Deathwish, running out of the room, tearing through the corridors as the traps that had been set up previously turned into roaring infernos as the Plague-bunnies set them off. I had no clue where I was actually going, this Facility was a fucking maze, but the shrieking howls of Dingoes led me on.

  I could hear the rumbling thumping drumming sound from behind, getting closer, and I knew that we were being pursued by a swarm of unpleasant death, then we were there; the room that had been turned into a makeshift Dingo kennel. I opened the door, setting the four Dingoes within loose.

  They leapt on the Plague-bunnies, each one snapping at their prey, tearing the unfortunate little rabbit things to pieces in seconds. The Plague-bunnies tried to rally, attempted to leap onto the Dingoes’ backs, but the whip-like tails swung back and forth, impossibly fast, preventing them from gaining purchase with claws or teeth.

  In almost no time at all it was over, the Dingoes moving on from the carnage that they’d wrought in search of more prey.

  When it was finally all over, The Queen thanked me for my quick thinking, as we watched the Dingoes being led placidly back into the kennel.

  Deathwish looked into the tunnel that the Plague-bunnies had burrowed, almost wide enough for him to climb inside, shone a torch into the breach. He stood up straight, shook his head, and told us that he had no idea how they were going to fix that wall.

  “I hate to say this, Your Majesty,” I didn’t really, I just hated to talk to her at all. Hated her, really. “But we’re going to need more Dingoes.”