The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (17 page)

Several of the other men walked over and placed their hands on Jeremy's shoulder to welcome him to the group.
Colton
said, "We all have similar stories
.
We
have all lost someone. I promise you
that
we will fight until we rid the world of these monsters."

One of the men in crowd pointed to the far end of the parking lot and said, "Here come some soldiers. It looks like a whole unit."

John turned to see close to forty men in camouflage uniforms walking toward the group. Their clothes looked ragged, dirty and torn. They walked aimlessly
,
without the discipline of a soldier. As they moved closer, he could see their hazy white eyes, graying skin and dried blood around their mouths. Open wounds allowed the muscle and organs to show.

"They're re-ans!"

Another man in the crowd called out, "Behind us!"

Colton
turned to see another group of zombies
,
enter
ing
the parking lot from the opposite end
,
surrounding his civilian militia. Several of the men opened fire with their hunting rifles
.
Only,
their bullets had no effect on the approaching dead. The men armed with axes charged in all directions to take on the horde by hand. They swung their
blades, landing
in the
bodies
of the zombies, only to be overwhelmed by several more. The men armed with rifles used the butt-end as clubs to bash in the heads of the undead
,
breaking open their skulls and splattering brain matter over the crowd.

The re-an soldiers swarmed the men, biting them in the shoulders, arms and necks. The civilians continued to fight back as a mist of blood filled the air and the asphalt turned crimson.
Colton
realized it
was
a
losing
battle and called for his men to retreat. His militia had to fight their way out of the crowd to the edge of the parking lot. Re-grouped in the street, he scanned the men who had been bitten. The looks on their faces told the story. Jeremy spoke up. "What do we do? Do we shoot them and put them out of their misery?"

Colton
stared at his injured men. "Shooting them will not stop them from turning into re-ans. There's nothing we can do for them now."

He motioned his head for all of his uninjured men to follow him away from the site. As they ran off, John forced himself not to look back at the men he had to leave behind.

Ravens flocked in the cottonwood trees, which lined the banks of the river far outside the boundaries of the city as Prometheus walked along the path with Nemi, Greg, K.C. and Hod. As the sun sat low in the sky above the silhouette of the
Rocky Mountains
, the twinkle of the distant urban lights appeared like the first stars of the night. The makeshift
shantytown
constructed from discarded scrap found in the area, stood out in contrast to the peaceful surroundings. Small huts built from multicolored car doors, fenders, sheets of scrap metal and plywood filled the open spaced between the trees. Several fires burned inside metal barrels trickling smoke into the clear sky
,
giving the appearance of a post apocalyptic village.

Titus walked up and greeted the visitors at the edge of the clearing to keep them from entering. He stood with his arms crossed and stared at the Athenian. "Greetings
,
brother, what brings you to our new town?"

Prometheus stopped a few feet from the Roman and replied, "Evening
,
brother. We have ventured all the way out here to your new residence to offer tidings. You are still welcome back at the warehouse."

"You really do not grasp our meaning or why we have come here. We have given into the realization
that
this is all a punishment
,
not a gift." Titus circled his hand toward the distant metropolis. "There is no noble reason to continue feeble attempts to communicate with the livings. They do not want what we have to offer. The most rational decision would be for you to join us."

"But, what about the gifts we are to pass from the
gods
to the descendants? This cause is not our own
,
but one given to us as an honor. We are duty bound to carry out this mission
,
" Prometheus responded.

"There is no honor in stealing a dead body and eating the flesh of the living. This is not the act of any loving
gods
." Titus motioned his head toward the
shantytown
behind him. "We have committed to make a new home away from the humans to keep from unwarranted conflict. Out here, where they do not live, the only reason for them to make this venture would be to initiate a fight. I promise you, we will not hesitate to go to war and as we are already dead, the advantage is ours. Their attempts to eliminate us will only make our numbers grow."

"But you are an honorable Roman. You must-"

Titus cut him off. "I am no Roman! I am a
Thracia,
who the Romans
captured
and forced into the class of slave. When I arrived
here,
my first thought was to give the allusion of a Roman in good standing to set myself high in the social order of the empire. When I learned
Rome
had fallen centuries
ago,
it gave no consequence. Roman citizenship still brought with it a cubit of respect. The false
esteem
along with this charge handed down from the heavens is no longer of any bearing. We are now only interested in our existence, until we are allowed to leave this retched world."

Prometheus turned toward the city and noticed Hod wading through the river with a spear in his hand
and
looking for fish. "For those of us still committed to what the gods have given charge, I fear we may never complete this task if all of the gifts are not handed down. You and the people you lead in this new village hold many of these
endowments
."

As the debate grew more heated between the two ancient men, Nemi stepped between them. "Not all questions have been answered and there is still much for all of us to learn. Perhaps we can agree to remain as two separate villages with a common truce until we have learned all we need to complete this journey."

Titus
placed
his hand on Nemi's shoulder. "You speak with words of reason
,
my Egyptian brother." He turned toward Prometheus. "We are more than two settlements. New arrivals have come from the east. They speak of many villages like our own
spreading
across this land. There are those who share your opinion and those who see this strange existence as we do. Hopefully
,
one day
,
we will have the answers as to how we should exist in this world."

The flock of ravens in the trees suddenly flew off and caught the attention of the undead on the ground. Watching the birds fly off in the darkening sky, Titus said, "It might be the fight
that
we hoped to avoid will be upon us sooner than expected."

The crack of a stick from behind a distant bush brought a tinge of fear into the Athenian's already dead body. More rustling from another group of trees gave the impression
that
the zombie village had been surrounded. Titus motioned with his hand for the visitors to move closer into the
shantytown
. Prometheus scanned the area for Hod
,
but could not see him. The undead came out from their huts and formed a circle. From the east
,
came the strange yell in the untranslatable sound made by the living. Out of the bushes, ran several of the descendants
,
armed with axes and wooden poles with sharpened tips forming primitive spears and pikes.

Several of the zombies charged the humans and the battle began.
The living appeared
out of
their hiding places from
all points surrounding the town. They stabbed and hacked at the zombies with their weapons as the deceased surrounded individual attackers, biting and tearing large chunks of flesh from the men. Greg sliced off limbs and decapitated his attackers with the precision of his Samurai soul. Blood from the living and dead splattered through the air and mixed with the ground forming crimson mud.
Not knowing what to do,
Prometheus watched the carnage.
Should I pick up a weapon? I have no fighting skills.

He saw a human charge at him with an axe held high. With his legs and body frozen in fear, he could only watch as the axe came down toward his head. A spear sailed down from the sky and pierced through the body of the axe wielding man. Prometheus searched for the source of the spear
,
when he saw Hod jump down from the nearby tree. The caveman picked up the axe and went into action
,
running through the battle
,
hacking at every one of the living he could see. As more and more of the living fell, the
battle
slowly trickled out. With only a few of the living remaining to fight,
the greater numbers of undead quickly overran them
.

Prometheus scanned the battlefield. In the flicker of the fires, he saw each of the bodies on the ground had several living dead on top of it. They bit, scratched, and pulled flesh off like vultures on a carcass. They ate their victims as if they took part in a celebratory feast holding up organs and body parts like trophies and shoving them in their mouths. Hod ran up to him with a smile and three fingerprint smears of blood smeared across his face. He raised his bloody hand and ran his fingers across the Greek's face to make the same three lines.
For the first time,
Prometheus wondered if the living really deserved
saving
.

Nemi approached with Greg and said, "The living captured K.C."

Prometheus responded, "Did they kill her?"

Greg replied, "No, I saw them take her away. They wrapped her in a tarp and dragged her into the bushes over there."

"Why did they want to take her?"

"I've talked to some of the new arrivals from the present. It appears the livings are capturing some of us for experimentation. Even though we are dead, there are rumors the experiments are painful and quite brutal. Unable to die, the torture will only continue indefinitely."

"Where are they taking them?"

Greg motioned to an undead in a t-shirt and jeans. "Tell him what you told me."

The t-shirt zombie said, "I was a cop just a week ago. We were taking our captives to the basement of the courthouse where these government scientists conducted their experiments. They had set up a temporary lab."