Prophecy of the Undead (20 page)

Keisha wondered what they would do if they were suddenly in darkness again. She tried not to panic, but she gripped Yuri’s hand harder. He gave her a reassuring squeeze, keeping himself just behind her so she could sense the solidness of his body near hers.

Keisha heard mumbling ahead of her. As she rounded the corner, she saw César on his knees with his forehead on the dirt floor, speaking in a language she didn’t understand. Apolinar and Casimiro were on their knees as well, but they looked straight ahead of them. They had all dropped the torches they carried, but there was light enough to see from the few torches burning hung in holes on the walls. Keisha felt momentary panic that and they would be crushed by the vacuum. Then she realized it wasn’t air pressure that was crushing her downwards to land on her knees as well. Yuri also went down, and they both looked in the direction the power came from.

Standing at the far end of the room was what César had accurately described as a mummy. The figure was short, dark, and thin, with its dried skin molded to the bones underneath it. The skull had no hair but there were dark patches all over the entire body where tattoos on the skin stretched tightly across the bone. The body was naked except for a tiny dirt-covered loincloth covering its groin in the front. This figure should not have been able to move. Then it did.

It slowly advanced towards them. The hideously toothless, grinning skull of a face stretched taut spoke first in Mayan, then in Spanish, and finally in English. The voice sounded distant and strained, from brittle and unused vocal cords and a tongue that looked like a dried piece of sandpaper.

“I will speak in your new language so that all will understand me. It is good that you have brought me the female to sacrifice in celebration of the return of the gods being so near.”

“No.” Yuri spoke with great effort, pushing out the syllable with difficulty.

The mummy walked slowly over to examine Yuri more closely.

“I don’t know you. I have never tasted you. You have no right to speak in my presence.” He turned dismissively away and walked over to stand in front of Apolinar.

“You have been gone far too long. You have forgotten the ways of worship I taught you so long ago. Your sharing blood with her let me hear her blasphemy. She will be sacrificed as so many were—to honor those who will return.”

Keisha’s eyes were wide open with terror as he approached her. He touched her with the tip of one of his dried twig-like fingers. She tried to move but was rooted to the spot as his fingernail tore a hole in her neck. He dipped a finger into it and then quickly stuck it into his mouth to lick at the blood.

He shuffled over to stand in front of Casimiro. “You have shared much blood with Apolinar, my servant. You are welcome to join us in celebrating the return of the gods. César the unwilling, will prepare her for sacrifice.”

Yuri tried to move but was unable to break free of the power the ancient vampire used to keep them all still.

Apolinar spoke with great effort, “Xaman Ek, most holy and exalted servant of the travelers who are gods,” he began.

The Mayan turned his attention to him.

“We did not come to worship the gods with you. We came to ask you to stop invading the mind of the woman. She is nothing to you. She is no threat to you or the gods. We beg you to be merciful and set her free.”

The Mayan smiled a horrible grimace that held no joy. The evil that glinted in his rotting eyeballs let them know his answer.

“You know you have no free will. You brought her to me because I wished it. She is only a female and unworthy of the gods but her blood will serve to let them know the old ways are being honored. She will be set free by being sacrificed to the gods who will return to set us all free. No longer will we be bound to these bodies or to this planet. We will travel among the stars with them and become gods like them: eternally young and strong. So I was told so long ago and so it will happen.”

He began to chant in Mayan. César joined him. Yuri was horrified when Keisha’s voice was added to theirs , speaking the Mayan words of worship. The other sound was from César sharpening the obsidian blades on the knives which he then laid out on the tiny altar in the middle of the room.

Grunting, Apolinar pushed his way slowly to an upright position. That brought him about a foot taller than the Mayan, who whirled on him in anger.

“How is this possible? You are required to remain on your knees throughout the ceremony, lest the gods be displeased.”

“The gods will be displeased, Xaman Ek, but it is not the ceremony they will dislike. It is you. You have failed your gods. You are not worthy to become one with them and travel among the stars.”

“What? What are these words you speak? Have I not suffered for my gods? Have I not lived an eternity of death and pain, torturing myself incessantly to prove my worthiness? Have I not taught all to worship the travelers—the gods who came so long ago and promised to return?”

Casimiro now pushed his way up to a standing position also. The Mayan turned his head to look at him and there was a glimmer of fear in his anger.

“How can this be? Both of you fight my power? Who are you to defy Xaman Ek, priest of the traveler gods? I was powerful when they arrived in their gleaming stars. I was made more powerful by their blood. I quickly learned how to make more followers and I served them for many years. I sent many out to make more followers.”

“You made mistakes. You have not served the gods as they asked,” Apolinar continued.

“I did serve them. I have lived for countless centuries—waiting and preparing for their return. When the peoples of the southern lowlands disregarded the warning not to turn everyone with the blood, it was their ignorance which caused their cities to collapse. It was not my fault. I warned them as the gods taught me to, that they needed to keep many for feeding. They all drank the blood and destroyed each other.”

The Mayan pointed a finger at Apolinar who remained upright with great effort.

“That was long ago. I taught you about that. Surely the gods will know that was not my doing. I have been their faithful servant for more years than anyone else could have been. My years of waiting are soon to end.”

“They will find you useless to them when they get here.” Apolinar said , “You will not be able to serve them as they require...you have too little blood left to even feed them.”

Anger crackled around the room as the Mayan advanced on Apolinar, trying to force him to kneel. He went down on one knee, then Casimiro took his hand and he stood back up again.

“You are too old to be useful anymore, Xaman Ek. You have no connection to the world as it is now.”

“I have learned this new language. I will learn what I need to.”

“You can’t learn to think like humans do today.”

Real fear now flashed across the mummified face. Yuri, who tried to fight the power that kept him down, suddenly realized his body was under his control once again. Unlike the others, he didn’t rise up, but slowly made his way over to the knives that César readied for the sacrifice. Keisha rocked and chanted quietly with her eyes closed, as she obviously prepared herself to be sacrificed.

“How is that? Humans are as they have always been:. unruly, undisciplined animals who need to be told what to do.”

“No, Xaman Ek, you are mistaken. The gods will return to find that humans have advanced more than they expected. They reach for the stars themselves now. Many of them think like the woman does, with ideas that reach far beyond our planet. Can you do that? Can you talk to the humans of today and convince them of the need to follow plans set into motion thousands of years ago, when they will run in terror from your appearance? You don’t even look human anymore. You don’t sound human and you don’t think like a human anymore. You have outlived your usefulness. What would the gods want you to do if you can’t serve them anymore? Would they expect you to ask Ixtab to give you the strength to worship her?”

“No,” the Mayan screeched with a sound that made everyone in the room wince. “I can learn quickly as I have always done. I have lived thousands of years, waiting for this moment. I have lain under the earth, listening to the activities going on above me. I have learned this new language...I can learn others. I will feed so that my skin becomes more full. I am a faithful servant.”

Apolinar continued speaking as Yuri inched closer to the knives. Yuri thought he saw a subtle nod of Apolinar’s head, hidden from the Mayan by Casimiro’s body. When he was close enough he reached for the longest, sharpest blade—the one that looked just right for separating a head from a body.

“Can you learn to speak to all of the people of the planet? Can you learn to talk with them about the physics of space travel? Can you convince them that the travelers are gods when they themselves have traveled to other planets? Can you speak to them of neutrinos and virtual particle pairs which pop in and out of existence? Can you discuss black holes evaporation or cosmic microwave background radiation, or the harnessing of the power held within a tiny atom to either destroy a civilization, or power the vast networks of electrical grids necessary to keep today’s humans informed? Can you make them see that you are the only one who can talk to the travelers that you call gods because you were their chosen one over five-thousand years ago? Or will they reject you as an inferior remnant to be discarded because you don’t think like the educated people of this modern age do? Will they need you to intervene with gods who think like they do? With gods who will approach them not as gods but as equals? Are you equal to your gods, Xaman Ek? Or have you outlived your time?”

“How can you say all of this to me when I want your mouth closed? How can you still stand? What gives you power to fight me like this when you used to crawl on your belly begging to bleed for me?”

Apolinar smiled at the man who held his hand.

“I have found my other half. I see all of the colors of the world now that I found a home in one man’s heart while he lives in mine. I have experienced a love that changed me and gave me the will to live and to reject you and your power. Your power comes from fear and I no longer fear you. I see you as your gods will...as a dried-up husk of what was once a servant, but is now not even good to feed upon. You have no blood to sacrifice. You have lived too long, Xaman Ek, to be of any more use to your gods. It is time for you to end this, here and... now!”

Moving quickly Yuri stood. Holding on to the hilt with both hands, he swung the blade.

“No.” César saw too late what was to happen and threw himself in the path of the blade. He was too far away and Casimiro moved to block him from reaching the Mayan. They grappled, each trying to throw the other to the ground.

The blade was sharp and Yuri’s aim was true. With one swing, he cut the Mayan’s head off. The bones were so brittle that it sounded like snapping a dried branch. There was no blood to spurt out from the neck or the hideous head which bounced down to the ground, rolling over to rest at Apolinar’s feet.

“It needs to be burned quickly. Start a fire. We must burn him before he repairs the damage.”

Yuri quickly found the torches they had dropped once they were hit with the Mayan’s power when they entered the chamber. He stacked them together, in a triangular shape, to create a small pyre. He used one of the torches from the wall to set them on fire, and quickly fed them other bits of wood and torch pieces he found around the room.

Apolinar picked up the mummified head of the Mayan and held it in front of him, speaking to it.

“Your time is passed, Xaman Ek. I send you to join your ancestors.” He spoke a few words in Mayan. Yuri looked on in horror as the eyes opened and the mouth tried to force out words.

Apolinar quickly walked to the fire and placed the head in the middle of the flames. It tried to roll but he stoked the fire by placing more torches from the walls onto the pyre and feeding the flames until they engulfed the head entirely. Meanwhile the body twitched on the floor, as if it was still alive but unable to act.

Apolinar picked up the ancient tool of death and hefted the blade Yuri had used to chop the arms and legs off of the dried-up husk of a body. He carried them over to join the head in the fire. Yuri kept searching for more wood to feed the flames. He dragged a pile of rags over and the dried fabrics made the fire burn hotter. When the flames looked hot enough, Apolinar and Yuri picked up either end of the torso and tossed it into the center.

Keisha screamed a long wail. She leapt to her feet and attempted to throw herself onto the pyre. Yuri intercepted her and held onto her while she struggled to free herself. He pulled her close and bit into her neck, then went searching in her memories for her. There was great confusion in her mind, passageways of darkness filled with smoke. He kept looking until he found her, once again curled into a fetal position, this time under a small child’s bed. He held both of her hands and smiled at her.

“It’s over, my love. He’s dead. Come back with me.”

With a gasp, Keisha opened her eyes and frantically bit the side of Yuri’s neck. She slurped greedily to regain her strength. They both sank to their knees, locked in each other’s arms.

Yuri broke her suction and held her tightly, murmuring words of love as he rocked back and forth with her.

Casimiro wrestled César to the ground once the torso began to smolder and burn. César lay still, his head turned toward the funeral pyre as it burned the body of the Mayan. Casimiro staggered over to Apolinar, who grabbed hold of him and pulled him close. For a moment neither of them moved. Then as one, they also sank to their knees in exhaustion, and fed from each other’s arms. They sat next to each other, locked in an embrace, and watched the fire.