The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (14 page)

From the far door, a woman's voice called out, "I guess this
is
where I'm supposed be."

Prometheus turned and saw a nicely dressed blonde
businesswoman
in a white shirt, dark gray blazer and matching short tight skirt. She wore high heels but walked across the warehouse with the gate of an athlete. "Either I've found the secret zombie lair or I've stumbled into
a
gigantic dork convention
,
"
she
said as she moved closer to the group.

Prometheus stepped forward to welcome the newcomer. "Greetings to the fair lady who joins our clan. What is your name and from where do you hail?"

The attractive woman stopped at the edge of the group with her hands on her hips, turned her head, spit, and addressed the Athenian. "Greetings? From where do I hail? Who are you, Henry Higgins?"

John stepped forward. "We are all from different parts of history and the present. It's like we have two factions here, the ancients and the moderns
,
which explains his strange vernacular. I'm guessing you're of
times that are more recent
. How about you start with your name, where you're from and how you died."

The businesswoman relaxed her stance and replied, "Call me KC. I'm from Golden at the base of the foothills. As for my last memory while alive, I was working in my lab. The contamination alarm went off and the doors automatically sealed. It doesn't take a scientist to determine
that
I didn't make it out." She scanned her body, ran her hands down her hips and felt the material of her skirt. "Judging by the pharmacy this chick had in her purse, I'm guessing we both met our demise by modern chemicals."

Prometheus said, "Well KC, the gods have bequest to all of us a power to hand over to the living. What is the gift you are to give?"

KC noticed the duffle bag on the ground with the handguns. "Hey, I've always wanted one of these." She bent down, picked up a 9mm, pulled the slide back to chamber a round and placed it in her skirt waistband in the center of her back. "The
gods
? Gifts to the living? I don't know anything about that. Some gray haired guy, he didn't give me his name
,
but I'm guessing by his looks and outfit
that
he was Father Time, gave me a message to give to all of you."

John asked, "You don't carry the cure for a disease or a new ability?"

"No, just a message." She scanned his blue outfit. "Nice dress
,
by the way."

Prometheus asked, "Then please tell us
,
KC of Golden, what is the message given to you by the Father of Time?"

She walked into the center of the group and surveyed the other zombies. "Here's what I'm supposed to tell you." She took a deep breath and spoke rather fast. "The soft colored song will carry the words of the chosen one. These words will be held silent for 100 years until the one who holds the spark of the flame gives them to the children of the descendants." She let out her breath. "There, I said it. Can I go now?"

Prometheus asked, "What does this mean? What is a soft colored song? Why do the words remain silent for 100 years?"

KC noticed the ravens perched in the rafters, and
then
brought her attention back to the group. "Look, when I woke up this morning, I thought my day would end with me downing some beers, slamming some shots and hooking up with some young hard body. Me, deciphering a prophecy
,
while standing the middle of a scene from a B-movie was not on the agenda. I don't even know how I became a re-an. I never went near any of the quarantined zones. There's no way
,
I could have been infected."

Titus stepped forward. She noticed the Roman inside the body of the gang member and said, "Hey
,
Holmes."

With a confused expression, he replied, "My name is not Holmes. I am Titus of
Herculaneum
. If you died only today, you have knowledge of what the living are trying to do. Have they sectioned off this area of the city to give us are own land?"

"No. They quarantined this area to keep the virus from spreading. Until they come up with a cure, the plan is to stay away from you." She held her hands out and examined them. "I mean us."

Several of the undead called out questions at once. KC held her hand up and said, "Quiet! I didn't pay much attention to the re-an uprising. I didn't watch the news or read about it. I only
have gotten
little tidbits from my friends
who texted
me."

John asked, "How could you not pay attention to the dead coming back to life?"

"I worked long hours in an A4 lab, several stories underground. To unwind after work, I'd hit the bars. The last thing I wanted was to tax my brain with a dose of reality. So no, I didn't pay attention to the uprising here or anywhere else in the world."

"This is taking place in other countries?" Prometheus asked.

"Yeah, it's everywhere." She let out a big sigh. "Now that I've given you the message and done my job, what happens next? Do I get to leave and go to my next life? I hope I come back as a dolphin
, because
that would be cool. No worries or responsibilities. I just swim around and eat little fish."

Princess Rachel,
using
the body of the Harajuku girl, took her by the hand and said, "Come with me
,
my friend. I will teach you of our ways."

* * *

On the military base, General Brown stood in front of the double set of steel gates
that were
topped with razor wire, which held back the massive horde of captured zombies. The dead prisoners pressed against the opposite side of the fence spewing their hideous moans and hissing. Their dead skin hung loose on the bodies, as they continued to decay. Dried blood covered the mouths of most, several had clothing saturated in dried blood, which had turned brown from the oxidation. The large numbers gave them very little room to move in the confined makeshift prison.

Ravens perched on top of the light posts, watching the movement below
,
while a light fog hung in the air, adding to the
eeriness
of the situation. Brown spoke into his satellite phone, "Yes
,
Mr. President, simply containing them is no longer an option. Storage space has become limited and we've had isolated incidents of uprisings. There are containment camps on every military base on every continent. I mean every base, Army, Navy, Air Force. Hell, there was even an outbreak at McMu
r
do in
Antarctica
. We have coordinated efforts underway with the British and Germans to solve the storage problem... No sir, relocating them into the ocean turned out not to be a good plan. They walked ashore two days later. Increasing the number of quarantined areas is only a temporary solution. … yes
,
Mr. President, I'll see to it."

He handed the phone to the soldier next to him, stared into the compound holding the zombies and took out his flask. "How many are in there?"

The young soldier checked the clipboard hanging next to the guard shack. "Eighteen thousand, sir."

After taking a swig of whiskey, the General replied, "Damn, there's more of them here than there are of us. Counting what our allies are holding, they outnumber the entire world military forces. It's a good thing
that
they don't know that."

A Humvee pulled up next to the gate and a Colonel stepped out
, giving
the General a salute. "Have you heard from the President?"

Brown returned a half effort salute and said, "Yeah, it looks like we have the green light. We are to burn
,
electrocute or both
to
get rid of all the re-ans. The White House will have a series of press releases about the health
hazard that
they pose to the
living. Then they will say
whatever else they need to sell it to the public. Notify all centers they are to begin the elimination as soon as the supply trucks arrive."

The Colonel replied, "Yes sir."

A Military Police van drove up next to the Humvee and two MP's exited. One of the soldiers approached the officers, saluted and said, "General, sir, we caught these two women leaving a secured building without any clearance documents. They will not give us any information
,
other than they want to speak with you."

Afraid of whom it might be, Brown walked over to the van as the other soldier slid the door open. Inside, chained to the bench, sat Hellion and Pink both dressed in black, with dark knit hats. The MP held up a flash drive and handed it to the General. "This is all they had on them. We tried to see what the drive contained
,
but it made our computer crash."

"Damn it!" Brown grabbed the flash drive. "Take those restraints off them."

With the chains off, the two women stepped out of the van and stood in front of the tall General. With his hands on her shoulders, Brown looked Pink directly in the eye and said, "This is the last time I'm going to do this for you." He turned to the Colonel standing behind him. "Mitch, put
her
in your
vehicle
and get her out of here."

"Sure thing." The Colonel took Pink by the hand and led her over to his Humvee.

The General glared at Hellion and asked, "What kind of trouble are you causing now?"

"You can't keep these people locked up like this." Hellion responded. "They haven't done anything wrong. They have rights
,
just like you and me. These are our friends and our family. They deserve just as much respect as any other living being. We need to let them live their lives without interference."

"These aren't people and they aren't living beings." He pointed to the fence where the zombies collected and watched the conflict. "They're dead. The only thing they want to do is eat us and turn us into more of them." Brown turned back to her. "Now tell me what're doing here!"

"I'm here to free these souls."

With more anger building in his voice, the General yelled, "Okay, you want to free them? You want to help these bastards? Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put
you
in there and
then
you can socialize with them for the rest of your short life. Make all the friends you want. Reason with them. Explain how you're here to help them. And while they are biting into your major muscle groups and pulling your organs out for desert, I’m sure you'll find comfort in the fact, you stood up for their rights."

He turned the soldier next to him. "Open up the first set of gates." Grabbing Hellion by the
arm,
he pulled her over to the entrance. She resisted
,
but could not break free from the grip of his massive hands wrapped around her thin arms. "Throwing you in there is going to save me years of therapy. I should have done something like this a long time ago."