Anno Zombus Year 1 (Book 8): August by Dave Rowlands Page B

this place.”  I asked her quietly what she meant.  “I can't put my finger on it, but something is up.  I think it might be time to move on.”  Pointing out that, in her condition, moving on could be disastrous, I couldn't help but feel a kind of sense of impending doom.  Maybe that was what she was feeling.  I don't know.  “Look, I know all that, okay?”  Apocalypse Girl hissed.  “I'm pregnant, not fucking stupid.  I just... I think we should head up north again soon.  To Coober's Nest.  At least think about it, alright?”  I promised her that I would consider it.  Ultimately, we need to do whatever is best for her and the baby.
     
    evening
    Standing on the rooftop of the hotel where we first met, those many months earlier, I looked out to the north, Apocalypse Girl leaning into me, my arm around her.  The sun had set and an hour earlier we ate dinner with The Queen.  She had bathed herself by that time, and combed out her hair, and was looking far more regal than she had this morning.  She was also unable to take her eyes off of me all evening.  It had been more than a little unnerving.
     
    As we left for our hotel I asked Butler about the fresh food that we keep on being served at the Palace.  Glancing around to make certain nobody was close enough to overhear, he confirmed my suspicions, telling me that there was indeed a small facility underneath the former Casino, and that they had been using it to feed the people ever since The Sheriff had discovered it in early January.  It had been determined, though, that there was not enough food in stasis to keep everybody sustained in the long term, so The Queen decided that only she and a select few, her Sheriff, Butler and Jester, to name a few, were to have access to it, and the farms were begun.
     
    I quietly told Apocalypse Girl that I would attempt to gain access to the facility, see if it was one of those connected to the sub-surface rail system.  If it was, we would be able to easily jump on a train and fuck off to wherever we wanted, within reason.  I suggested the AR-18 base, receiving a scathing look from Apocalypse Girl.  Whoever it was that had sent that message to her phone those weeks ago was not somebody she wanted to see in a hurry, nor even simply speak of.  Knowing better than to pry further, I simply held her close.

August 13 th Year 1 A.Z.
    morning
    Turns out that the Queen, in all her youthful exuberance and wisdom, has decided that today is a special day, one for celebration as her new Champion, as she now called me, successfully delved into a den of the Dead and returned with everything that I had promised her and more.  At least, that was how she was billing it on all of the posters that had mysteriously sprung up all over the remains of the city, advertising an award ceremony to be held in my honour at noon today.  Someone had slipped a copy of the blasted thing under the door to our hotel suite overnight as well.  Apocalypse Girl simply found it amusing, as did Machete and Scout.  Apprentice thought as I did, that there was something else going on behind the scenes here.
     
    Overnight we had also been in radio contact with a few of our former comrades and travelling companions.  Viking and Valkyrie were finally married, the ceremony performed by none other than Elder, fresh from his studies at the House-where-no-house-should-be.  The white-haired old aboriginal man had a tendency to pop up at the strangest times and places, possessing the uncanny ability to Slip between realities, as he called it.  He had, he informed us on our first encounter, first seen our little group in a dream and decided that we needed his help.  As it was he was able to teach Apocalypse Girl something very unique, indeed incredibly useful from time to time.  She could reach into other realities and kind of fish things out of them.
     
    The School was on uneasy terms with The Puller and his Empire, though they had set up a network of