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

to AR-18, another squad on their way back from another mission, most likely.
     
    Soon enough, I spotted a break in the milling swarm.  As we closed I began to wonder how they’d managed to get the Dead to move aside so that our chopper could land.  As the pilot swung around to land, I saw the truth; a familiar looking caravan sat in the centre of the clear zone.  “She already knew,” Viking whispered in my ear.  He was right; Apocalypse Mum had to have known already, otherwise she’d not have been able to get Caravan Loony and his home here in time.  Viking and I shared a knowing glance.  Neither of us would underestimate The Boss again.  It was surprising, some of what she wasn’t telling us.
     
    The chopper landed without incident just a few metres away from the caravan.  I jumped out first, walking up to the caravan and knocking loudly.  The door opened slightly and Caravan Loony poked his head into the crack.  “Oh!  It’s you again… come in!”  He opened the door fully, allowing only Viking and myself inside.  “I’ve just put the kettle on, you guys want some tea?”
     
    Viking accepted his offer gratefully, as did I, though I’d have preferred coffee, tea is an acceptable substitute.  “I felt like I was flying in bed the other night, it was weird.” The inhabitant of the caravan seemed to have no idea that he had even been displaced.
     
    The Dead swarmed much closer to the caravan this time, though Caravan Loony still seemed largely unaware of their existence.  We sat and leisurely drank our tea, our squad waiting impatiently outside as we discussed utterly insignificant shit with Caravan Loony, like the weather and sports.  He truly had no idea that the world had ended.
     
    When we said goodbye to Caravan Loony and exited we discovered that the chopper had already left, leaving Giant, Scar, Maori and Wall stranded, surrounded by Dead that were utterly uninterested in anything other than staring at the caravan.  Why they had this fascination with it I had no idea, nor whether it was the caravan or the Loony inside it.  It seemed, however, that the more Dead pressed about, the closer to the caravan they were able to get.  This meant that we had limited time in which to accomplish our objectives.
     
    On the far side of the caravan was a tunnel leading into a bare cliff face.  Dead hung back inside this tunnel, staring at the caravan as with the others.  Casually, or at least as casually as I could manage, I strolled as far into the tunnel as I dared, trying to get some sense of the surroundings.  The stench was pretty damn nasty, with this many Dead crammed into one space.
     
    Turning to my squad, I found that they’d followed me into the tunnel anyway.  I told them that I had met Caravan Loony once before, that the Dead would stay back from us for the time being, and that this would be the perfect opportunity for us to just mow down a shitload of them.  Raising our rifles to our shoulders, we all switched to single fire and lined up facing the Dead.
     
    Heads exploded almost before we began firing.  The naked Dead fell to the floor as our bullets passed through several heads apiece, each one being precisely the same height.  The Cloned Dead that still stood took a single step forward and we fired in unison once again.  Another mess of Dead fell dead, spilling relatively fresh brains out onto the floor.  Again, the hundreds of surviving naked cloned carcasses shuffled forwards a single step, again we mowed down a couple of dozen.
     
    “Fuck this,” Giant pulled a grenade from her belt, pulled the pin and flung it as far into the tunnel as she was able.  A moment later, the explosion sent the parts of several naked Dead flying.  I told her to stick to the rifle for now.  “Okay, Chief.” She looked almost contrite.  We aimed and fired again, they moved forwards slightly again.  The going was slow this way, but with each row mown down we saw some