The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (12 page)

"It sounds similar to the style of government
that
we used in
Athens
. It worked well then, it should operate with the same efficiency now
,
" Prometheus responded.

"Truer words have not been spoken." Titus replied. "With the events of last night, I along with many others have ceded to the fact we will need a military force for our protection." He pointed to a duffle bag filled with 9mm handguns, Remington shotguns, and several boxes of ammunition. "The good John of Vegas and Vic of Chicago gathered these for us early this morning from an abandoned merchant who sold such devices. We are told they are modern weapons we can use in our defense against the living who intend us harm."

Prometheus picked up a Glock and pointed it directly in his right eye to see inside the barrel. "How do such weapons operate? I see no sharp edges to cause damage to an enemy soldier."

Vic reached over and gently pulled the gun down from the Greek's face. "Careful there
,
Socrates. You just put the business end up to your mug. If you had pulled back on this thing here, called a trigger, your head would be gone."

Examining the weapon with it pointed into the warehouse, he pulled the trigger. The recoil caused the gun to jump out of his hand and land on the ground. The bullet hit a startled zombie across the room
,
causing nothing more than confusion
,
as to what just hit him in the chest.

Pointing to the angry undead person, Vic said, "See
,
if you did that to the living, they would be one of us right now."

With an open hand, palm up, Titus pointed to the Viking. "This leads us to the formation of a military. We have discussed the issue of a leader and consensus dictates
that
we choose the good Gunnar Benwa."

Scanning the duffle bag, Gunnar said, "I don't understand these strange weapons
,
but the moderns insist they are effective. For me, give me a sword and mace
,
and I will fall any living
,
daring enough to challenge us."

"The descendants outnumber us greatly. Will we truly have a chance to defend ourselves?" Prometheus asked.

"I wondered the same." Titus responded. "Would we be a sufficient force to combat the descendants, or merely fodder for their next gladiator games? This brought to mind the mistake made by praetor Gaius Claudius Glaberus when he thought the rebellion would be an assault on disorganized slaves. Unknown to him, they had been trained in the military arts by the gladiators Crixus and
Spartacus
. Judging by the lack of knowledge the moderns have of our time, I feel the living are about to re-live this same error in judgment."

Standing at the edge of the group, Jennifer spoke up. "It's settled then, we are to promote Gunnar to the rank of
General,
so he can lead our new army."

Titus turned to the Viking and said, "All hail General Gunnar Benwa." Several zombies joined in the chant.

Jennifer tapped Prometheus on the shoulder and said, "We should be making a video of this to document our rise to save humanity."

Confused, he replied, "Video? What is this you speak of?"

"Remember when I taught you about movies and television? It's the way we record the actors and events to be played back for others to see."

"Can we use one of these videos to act out our message to the descendants?"

Jennifer thought for a moment. "Yeah, I guess we could. I didn't see any electronic stores in the abandoned parts of town. We would need to send some of our folks into the population. Once they see us, it might not go so well."

Drew injected, "Yeah, the only electronics store within walking distance would be over on the mall, past the museum. There's a good size crowd there night and day."

Walking over to the group,
Constance
offered her help. "I often assisted in many performances in our city playhouse. I do not mean to sound boastful
,
but I received high praise for my application of stage makeup and costumes. I can dress us up
in a way that we won’t
be discovered for who we are."

"I say we take the charming
Constance
up on her offer for assistance." Titus replied as he addressed the group.

* * *

With his whiskey flask in hand, General Brown stood at the end of the conference table and addressed the room full of military officers. At the opposite end of the table, a monitor teleconferenced Daniel and Lisa from their lab. "How long until you have the cure?" He said to the scientists. Daniel moved closer to the camera
,
causing his face to have a fisheye lens effect. He cleared his throat and with a nervous tone said, "Dr. Tower and I have made great strides in finding a cure. We have isolated what appears to cause the re-animation effect."

"So you found the virus."

"No
,
General. We can't classify it as a virus at this time. Truthfully, we don't know what this is."

"You don't need to know what it is, just figure out how to kill it." The General turned to the other men in the room. "Until they come up with a cure, we need to step up our efforts. I have reports coming in from several countries the re-ans are fighting back only not in the soccer riot fashion. They are organized and using military tactics. Albeit, rather ancient
strategies,
they are still effective methods for this type of street fight."

One of the officers at the table asked, "Are the re-ans capable of communicating with other groups in different countries?"

"As far as we can tell, they can't even communicate with each other when they are only feet apart. These rebellious outbreaks are isolated incidents
,
but
they are
similar in execution. This is why we can no longer rely on our first responders to take care of the situation. The President has given me the go ahead to bring in reservists and eliminate the threat."

Another officer asked, "But bullets and conventional weapons have no effect on them. What will we use?"

"Everything we have. They burn
extremely
easy. Once you squish them under a tank tread
,
it's just a matter of cleaning up." He pointed to the folders on the table in front of all the men. "You have your objectives in front of you. When you get back to your home state, use whatever tools you have at your disposal. Try not to break any building or infrastructure
,
because we would have to go back in and re-build it. This whole operation has already thrown us way over budget." Brown took a swig from his flask and glanced at his cell phone. He saw a text from Pink, which said, "How about you take me to dinner?" He became so
captivated
with the message
that
he did not notice Daniel had spent a few minutes explaining the progress they had made on the anti-virus. He came out of his trance and focused back on the meeting.

On the video screen, Daniel continued, "…so it acts more like a parasite than a virus taking control of the nervous system
,
much the same way as the parasitic fungus
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis
takes control over the brain and nervous system of an ant. Only, this is a much larger scale with more complexity to the operation of the host body."

Hearing the words "parasitic fungus," caused Brown to take another sip from his whiskey. "Why does this fungus want to take control of an ant?"

Daniel moved to the side as Lisa moved into view of the camera to answer the question. "Hi General, it's me
,
Dr. Tower."

"Yes, Doctor
,
I know who you are."

"Okay, the fungus has the same purpose as all living entities. It simply wants to reproduce. When it takes control of the ant's brain, it forces the ant to climb to a
high point
,
so it can spread its spores. We can only assume the virus, fungus or parasite controlling these re-animated bodies is using them for the same purpose. It will eventually cause the body to go somewhere or do something needed for the reproduction cycle of the
entoparasite
."

Having
an expression of dissatisfaction, Brown responded, "
So,
can we just spray them with bug killer and
then
be done with this whole thing?"

Daniel moved his way back into the screen. "Actually, that gives me an idea, General. I'll go over some theories with Dr. Tower and get back to you tomorrow. We may be only weeks away from a cure."

* * *

Prometheus
,
along with a group of his fellow zombies, walked down the sidewalk in the bright sunshine. An unusual amount of ravens gathered in the trees and watched the journey through the city. Outside of the quarantined zone, the undead tried to blend in with the living
by
wearing the costumes and makeup applied by
Constance
. The makeup looked over
done
like a vaudevillian actor, which did manage to give some living color to their graying skin. The costume portion of the disguise consisted of nothing more than a large handlebar mustache given to each member of the group
, except
for John
.
He
wore his blue dress, a wig and applied his own makeup
,
which made him blend in with the living the better than all the others.

As they walked, Jennifer asked Prometheus, "So what did you do for a living back in your time?"

"I don't understand your words. For me to live, I needed to breath, eat and drink. I would have to assume the moderns did the same."

With a slight smile, Jennifer replied, "Yes, my terminology might be a bit confusing to you. What I meant was how did you earn your money?"

"Oh
,
from where did I arrive at my wealth?" Prometheus reflected for a moment. "My family owned an olive orchard. We found a very lucrative market in
Egypt
. The Egyptians had quite a taste for both the raw olives and the pressed oil."

John entered the conversation. "I spent a month in
Greece
a few years ago. From the amount of olive groves in the area, there is a good chance your orchard still exists. With all the wars through the centuries, I doubt your descendents still own it
,
but it might still exist."

"When we are done with our mission here, I hope to see my home and stroll through the orchard once again."

In a window, a
poster
with a picture of a samurai sword and an ancient battle-ax
, caught the eye of Benwa and the group stopped with him. He pointed to the weapons and said, "Where can we get some of
those
?"