The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (20 page)

Prometheus placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. "And one day
,
you will receive such an honor."

The Viking turned to his dead brother. "You are from the city of thinkers. Tell me where my logic contains flaws. As one of the living, my job was to be fearless and brave. A glorious death in battle would mean eternal life in
Valhalla
with my ancestors. I would get to see my father again and show him how his son had grown into a strong warrior. All of this would happen after my death. I died in a battle against a tribe of Gauls. I fended off three of them at once so our women and children could seek shelter."

"You are not only brave, but you are also courageous and regal."

The Viking joined in staring at the city lights. "Thank you for your words of kindness
,
but my bravery is not what troubles me."

"Then
,
my friend, what is the cause of your concern?"

"As you have heard, I lived the life of a brave warrior and died heroically in battle. Because I am dead," he motioned his hand out toward the lights of the city, "this must be
Valhalla
."

Prometheus did not respond right away. He tried to find the error in his friend's argument, but could not see any. "Perhaps
,
this is one last test of bravery before you enter your eternal life with your ancestors."

Gunnar stared off in the distance as he walked away from the Athenian. His voice faded off as the distance between the two men increased. "If this is a final test, I must decide if I have the determination to continue the fight."

As he watched the Viking step out into the darkness he called out, "Where are you going my friend?"

As he waited for the answer, Prometheus noticed another living dead
wandering
into the dim light from the field. He turned his attention toward the newcomer. "Greetings friend, are you new to this world?"

Slowly emerging in the yellow flicker from the candle flames, he saw a bloody and bewildered soldier appear. His dirty uniform had tears, scuffs and patches of dried blood. The military man with the short dark hair staggered up to Prometheus and asked with bewilderment across his face, "Am I a re-an?" He glanced at his clothes. "I mean
,
I feel like I'm still alive
,
but this is not my body."

"It's okay
,
my friend. We have all gone through this adjustment period. Let's start with your name and from where do you hail?"

The confused soldier scanned the front of the warehouse. "I'm Norman Patterson, I'm a judge." He held his hands out and looked at the
bloodstains
. "Or, I guess I used to be a judge."

"Are you from this time period or earlier?"

"I'm from this time. It seems like it was only moments ago
,
a bunch of vile re-ans stormed my courtroom and killed me. One minute
,
I was behind my bench,
and
the next I was talking to the big man himself."

"You are now one of us
,
my friend. Perhaps your view of our life will change. Have you been given a gift to pass on to the living?"

"Yes, I carry the cure for all rhinoviruses
,
which would include the common cold." He turned from the warehouse back to Prometheus. "How does that work?"

The crack of a stick from out in the dark field caught the attention of the Greek man. He called out to the darkness, "Gunnar, is that you?"

With no
reply,
he turned his attention back to Judge Patterson. "Inside
,
you will find Princess
Rachel;
she will educate you on your new world."

As the newcomer walked into the building, Prometheus heard more rustling in the bushes, just beyond the light. "Gunnar, are you out there?" The sound of muffled human voices told him
that
they were about to come under attack.

He ran into the building and shouted, "The livings are here! They are spread out in the field and I fear they mean to attack."

Greg ran toward Prometheus with his sword drawn and others grabbed manual weapons scattered around the building and followed. The samurai in the business suit, waved his arm and yelled, "Prometheus, take cover!"

Prometheus ran toward a nearby large crate
,
as he saw a small army of the living pour through the door. The two armies collided in the center of the warehouse with the clash of their metal weapons. The Athenian curled up behind the cover and watched the battle take place before his eyes. The living used mostly axes and spears with some poorly made swords. One man who appeared to be their leader waved a machete. Only a few of them had modern guns, which they fired with no effect. As the two forces merged into battle, the fight reminded him of when the Spartans attacked
Athens
.

The living used their weapons to slice body parts off the living dead. Those who had a leg chopped off
,
continued to crawl across the ground
,
toward any of the livings who had fallen. The humans would attack with two or three against each zombie. When they could pin a re-an to the ground with spears, another would use an axe to cut off arms legs and finally the zombie's head.

Most all of the dead souls fought like soldiers. They had no choice with the battle
that was
taking place inside their safe haven. The ancients
,
who had more experience with swords
,
proved their superior fighting skills
,
by dropping the humans with one or two quick strokes of their blades. Greg used his Samurai sword to slice through the living with ease. As the humans fell to the ground, several undead would converge on them, like a pack of wolves and feast on their still living bodies. Biting and tearing away flesh as the victims screamed out in their strange language. Minutes after the start of the battle, the humans found themselves greatly outnumbered.

Three of the living soldiers found Prometheus behind the crate and pulled him by his feet out into the open. One
of them
thrust his pike into the Athenians abdomen
,
while another came down with an axe on his knee, severing the lower part of his leg from his body
,
spraying blood over the area. The third human swung a hatchet toward the re-an's head. Prometheus tried to roll
away,
but
he
was still
pinned
to the ground by the
pike
in his midsection. All he could do was turn his
head,
as the blade cut through the side of his neck. While the human retracted his arm for another swing, the long blade of a sword pierced through the human's ribs. As the man fell to the ground, Prometheus saw Princess Rachel,
who was
still wearing the Panda shaped backpack, swing her sword at the living person holding the
pike,
decapitating
him with one smooth slice. In a recoil motion, she beheaded the axe wielding man.

The Princess knelt down and placed her hand on the forehead of the Athenian and stared into his bright green eyes. With his head only partially attached to his body, she told him, "My good friend, it looks as though your journey in this strange world will soon come to an end and you will not get to see this world through blue eyes. I hope
that
whichever god sent you on this mission will show mercy in your next life."

Prometheus could feel his energy drain
,
just as
he did
when the Spartan soldier killed him centuries ago in
Athens
. He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out the small white video camera. Placing it in Princess Rachel's hand, he wrapped her fingers around it. "Protect this artifact. The good teacher Jennifer fought bravely to keep it from the descendants. She said it will be most valuable in spreading our message to the living. I feel I will be leaving this world
,
so I trust you will protect this I know you value our charge given to us by the gods."

As the battle continued to rage behind her, the Princess calmly replied, "I promise you
,
my friend, I will guard this as though it were the palace jewels."

Staring into her face and her multicolored hair, Prometheus slowly closed his eyes and his world faded to black.

Lying
on the ground, Prometheus opened his eyes to a flickering orange light. The sounds of gunfire and distant explosions filtered into his ears. The silhouette of a bug-like metal flying machine flew
past, close
to the tops of the buildings
,
making an awful pounding sound. As his vision slowly came into focus, he saw a bright
chrome
cutlass protruding from his ribs
,
while he wore the same clothes as the modern day soldiers. Standing above him, a man in a black leather motorcycle jacket, leather chaps, a black cowboy hat and heavy boots
,
pulled the sword back and slid it into a sheath strapped on his belt. Broken windows and burn scars covered the surrounding downtown buildings with the only light emanating from scattered small fires. A few skirmishes took
place
on the street between the livings and re-
ans,
behind the
leather-
clad man with the long sandy colored hair and one earring dangling from his left ear. A bullet hole in his chest with a blood soaked t-shirt gave indication as to how the body died. The biker bent over, with their faces a foot apart, and glared into the Athenians eyes. "Ya dirty bilge rat! I just killed ya." He placed his
fingers
in Prometheus's mouth, opened
it,
and
the
n
scanned his teeth. "Do ya be living or ya be a necromancer?"

With the fingers still in his mouth, Prometheus garbled the words, "I believe
,
I am still one of the living dead."

The
leather-clad
man pulled his fingers out and stood up. He reached his hand down to help Prometheus stand up. Back on his feet, the man from
Greece
scanned his new body. He wore a soldier's battle uniform with a large
bloodstain
where the biker stabbed him.

"Ye be one of da lucky ones
,
"
the
biker said.