The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (16 page)

Vic asked, “Why would a temple
built for
Zeus
,
be considered a business venture?”

“During the days
that
you call ancient
Greece
, a temple could make a large income for the owners. The offerings the citizens contributed accumulated rather quickly.
The owners, to cover the expenses, collected these offerings
. Even after the tax amount had been withdrawn, it was still more than most people would make in a lifetime.”

Outside the building, they approached K.C. who shared a thermos filled with coffee with several other zombies. As she took a drink, she said, “Damn, my friend. I wish coffee had this same effect while I was alive. Work would have been so much more tolerable.”

Vic said to her, “Yo, K.C. we have some questions about the prophecy.”

She handed the thermos to another undead. “Look, I’ve been telling you dorks
,
I have no idea what any of it means. My job was to recite it
.
I did that
.
Now
I’m just waiting for one of these gods, all of your keep talking about, to come and take me to Nirvana
,
so I can donk a blunt and get wicked stupid with Bob Marley.”

Constance
asked Vic, “Can you explain to me what she just said?”

He replied, “Nobody knows what she just said.”

Prometheus interjected, “We have so many questions and the prophecy is the only guidance given to us.”

“Then write the words down, memorize them, sing them out loud, tattoo them on your decaying bodies. It will not change the fact that
,
I don’t know what the hell it means.”

“Such vulgar words you speak for a lady
,
” Candice replied.

“Listen Princess Pudding, if my vocabulary disturbs you, you can stuff it up your tea and crumpets. I didn’t ask to be here, I don’t want to be here and I don’t plan on playing nice with others while I’m dead.”

Gunnar called out, “In all of Einherjar,” he pointed across the field next to the warehouse, “
does
someone want to tell me what they are doing.”

Prometheus turned to see a small group of the living, all
dressed
in long white flowing gowns,
walking
toward them. The strange sounds they made almost came across as some kind of singing. They carried a young woman on their shoulders, and calmly with caution approached the horde. Twenty feet away, they stopped, gently placed the woman down on the parking lot asphalt, and finished their strange melody. The lady on the ground kept her eyes closed as if in a peaceful sleep
while
the singing transformed into what sounded like a chant and they danced around the woman.

Nemi, the Egyptian, asked, “Will someone please tell me what these people are doing?”

K.C. responded, “Oh how cute, the
nu
t
jobs
think they can make all of this go away with a human sacrifice. I take it all back. Being dead just got fun.”

She held both of her arms straight out in front of her, tilted her head to the side, and walked toward the living with stiff legs. The humans quickly backed away from the woman on the ground, keeping their eyes on the zombie female as she approached. When K.C. reached the sleeping lady, she bent down until their faces were inches apart. The sleeping lady quickly opened her eyes as K.C. blurted out, “Boo!”

The human sacrifice sprang up and ran toward her group of the living.
K.C.,
along with several others, ran after them yelling, “You kids get off my lawn!” “
Scat,
you varmints.” “Come back and be our dinner
.
I mean stay for dinner.”

* * *

Inside the small examination room, the
fluorescent lights gave off a slight buzz along with the greenish light. Wendy Cronsworth tried to pace back and forth
,
but
was
only able to take three steps
,
before turning around began to make her dizzy. The door swung open
,
breaking her out of her light trance
,
and the doctor burst in staring down at the chart in his hands. Almost bumping into her, he glanced up and stopped just in time. Anxious to hear the verdict of her tests, Wendy blurted out, "How's it look
,
doc? All better?"

The doctor turned to the second page and said, "There's no way to sugarcoat this
.
The
cancer has spread and
it
continues to grow. It's showing no reaction to any of the combinations of treatment
that
we've thrown at it so far.

Even though her continued
weaken
condition supported the test results, hearing the words hit her like a lead weight. She leaned back against the table and tried to hold back the tears forming in her eyes. "I guess
,
I shouldn't be surprised. It's just that I had hoped for a miracle or at least a small glimmer of improvement."

Closing the file with her chart, the doctor replied, "We're not done yet. You are not even close to point where you can give up. I've had patients in worse condition than you
who made
full recoveries."

"Thanks
,
doc, but my husband is a research scientist who has studied diseases his entire career. I know the odds and they are not exactly in my favor."

"Yes, I'm familiar with your husbands work. If I'm not mistaken, he's currently working on the re-an virus. I hear he's close to a cure."

Hearing the doctor talk about her husband's fame helped Wendy cheer up. "Yeah, he's been working hard on the cure. He practically lives in his lab, these days. I just want to be here to see him save the world."

"I'm sure you'll be standing next to him in
Stockholm
when he accepts his Noble Peace Prize."

"What makes you so confident?" She replied
,
with a bit of optimism in her voice.

Her doctor set her chart down, crossed his arms and leaned against the scrub sink. "We're going to turn up the heat, so
to
speak. We're stepping up the radiation and the chemo. As my son would say,
We're
turning it up to eleven. I don't really know what he means
,
other than we are going to do a full blitz and completely overwhelm your tumors. Starting Monday, you need to go to my clinic on 28
^th
."

Hearing the location gave Wendy a bit of a startle. "Isn't that right on the edge of the quarantined zone?"

"Yes it is
,
but it's the edge of the green
district
. I can give you a pass
,
which will let you cut across the
Broadway
Bridge
and save you an additional mile walking around the perimeter of the quarantined section. It's not as dangerous as it sounds. The area is only barricaded as a buffer from the
segment
where there has been a lot re-an activity."

"Are you sure it's okay to cross the bridge?"

Her doctor gave a reassuring smile. "Not only do I have several patients
,
who cross Broadway, it's also how I get to the clinic. Parking rates in that area have gone astronomical, plus it's actually faster for me to walk across the bridge
,
rather than drive all the way around the barricades."

Wendy felt a slight bit of relaxation
on
hearing
that
her doctor takes the same route through the green zone. "Well, I would like that trip to
Sweden
. I guess the walk to the clinic will only help towards my recovery."

"Now that's the attitude I want to hear."

* * *

John Colton stood
in the center of the parking lot
on the concrete block at the base of a streetlight. The small crowd of civilians armed with hunting rifles, handguns and axes surrounded him. The light at the top of the pole let out a buzz, flickered and slowly lit up as the grayness of dusk settled around them. He spoke
loudly,
so his voice would carry over the crowd.

"We no longer have the luxury of being simple civilians. In order to save our families, our city and our way of life, we need to form our own civilian militia. What's left of our military is overwhelmed with
the
burden of fighting off this ever
-
growing population of re-ans."

A slender man with sandy colored short hair approached the group. His dirty and torn oxford shirt and tan pants showed signs of a battle. He called out, "Is this were I need to be if I want to help fight those demons?"

Colton
glanced over the heads of the other men at the new arrival. "Yes it is
,
brother. What is your name?"

"Jeremy Larski."

"Do you have any police or military experience?"

"No, I've spent the last fifteen years
being
parked behind a desk as a data analyst. I've never held a gun or any kind of weapon in my hand, before today, but I'm ready to fight."

John jumped down from the concrete block and walked through the crowd to the recruit. He placed his hand on Jeremy's shoulder and asked, "What brought you out here today
,
my brother?"

Larsky's face turned
red,
as he appeared to hold back a tear. "Those devils killed my family. We came home from the store and they appeared out of the bushes. I tried to get everyone inside
,
but they surrounded my wife and kids before I could get the door open." Two ravens landed on the asphalt behind Jeremy as he continued.  "They took one bite out of my wife's arm and
wandered
away down the street. We tried to clean the wound with alcohol and hydrogen peroxide
,
but you could see the death spread fast. She asked me to cut her arm off before it spread to her body. No matter how loud the voice in my head told me it was the right thing to do, I couldn't bring myself to get the ax.
I sat with her, through
the night in my arms, until the sun came up
, and it was then that
she finally lost the battle. I went downstairs to get a blanket to cover her up, but when I came back, she had already transformed into a re-an, and had bitten both of our kids. Nobody should have to go through what just happened to me. I'm here to fight with you until this curse is gone."