The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (35 page)

A crack of a twig caught Jeremy's attention for a second
,
as he slightly turned his head toward the trees where the sound originated. "I joined up back at the beginning, when we were the crazies who shouldn't be taking the law into our own hands. Now, what's left of the population
looks
to us as the only remaining fragments of order and law."

"What did you do back before the
uprising
?"

Larski brought his attention back to the fire and continued warming his hands. "I sat behind a desk all day staring at a computer monitor as a data analyst. I spent my days dreaming of a time when I wouldn't have to look at a screen." He gazed to the top of the fire with a distant stare. "It's been eight years since I've touched a computer. It's been four years since I saw one in working condition."

"What made you join up?"

"Same as all the others
,
back then I lost my family.
Those demon scums
ambushed us as we came home. We had heard about the re-ans
,
but only saw them on the news. After the first couple of
weeks,
they weren't even the top story at night. I figured there was no way they would spread out to the suburbs. We never saw a need to change our life for something that would go away in a few months. They got to my wife as I tried to find a weapon in the garage. I held her in my arms through the night as she turned. Before I could destroy her body, she bit the kids." He glanced up from the fire at Daniel. "Why'd you join up? You must've had it good. As one of the Government VIP's
,
you probably had a steady supply of food, hours of electricity every day, a roof over your head, clean water, hot showers and military protection. Not many people would leave those luxuries for the caveman life."

Out in the trees, another
crack of a twig caught the attention of both men. As the sound dissipated into the breeze through the brush, Daniel answered, "There's not much Government left these days. Even the military is starting to ration supplies between the compounds
,
"
he
paused
for a moment
, and then continued. "I lost my wife days before the vaccine went public. I also held her in my arms as she transformed into a re-an. After that, I didn't want to fight from behind a microscope any more."

"Still, you were close to what's left of a government. What news did you hear about the outside world? I'm sure you had access to a radio."

"There's all kinds of reports coming in from all over, but I learned the real news is what you didn't hear.
China
,
Greece
, and the entire continent of
Africa
have gone dark. As soon as information,
broadcasts
, or curriers stop coming from a country, they are crossed off the map. Nobody tries to send help or find out what the situation is
,
just act as though the country no longer exists."

"I knew about
Greece
,
but not
Africa
." Jeremy went back to warming his hands. "What about the elections? I heard the government was going to hold elections this year. There's even going to be new positions for people to hold. Stuff like Minister of Food Supply and Secretary of Electricity Rations."

Daniel shook his head and brought his gaze down to his feet. "There's not going to be any elections or any new jobs. That's just something they leaked to the public to raise hopes. With all the areas
that
have gone dark just in the States, it's hard to consider us one continuous country anymore.
Eighteen
states no longer exist and three more are on their way out. The only power on the grid is coming from the three remaining nuclear plants."

"What about
Hawaii
? There're rumors they were never affected by the uprising. If you can make it out there, it's life as it used to be."

Daniel shook his head in despair. "No,
Hawaii
was the first state to go black."

Another dried stick snap in the trees,
drawing
their attention. The crack turned into soft footsteps
,
which
soon
developed into several sets of feet. Daniel grabbed an old steel fencepost that had been sharpened into a
sword,
and
he
held it toward the source of the sound. Jeremy kept one hand on his axe, and gently waved the palm of his other hand toward the scientist
,
wanting him to lower the weapon.

Through the
trees,
Daniel saw two more civilian militia men appear
at
the other
side
of the fire. One had a sawed off shotgun in his hand and the other carried a modified battle axe. Between the two men, they held the arms of a woman wearing an olive green jacket, shirt and pants. The standard issue clothing the military had been handing out to civilians. She kept her face down so the others could not see her. One of the men said to Jeremy, "We found her out by the farm. She said she wants to join our cause."

Larski glanced at the woman and turned his attention back to the fire. As he rubbed his hands, he said, "Okay, take her to the compound. Olivia said she could use some help in the med tent."

The man standing next to the mysterious woman replied, "I tried to take her there
,
but she said she has some kind of special
i
ntel
and skills we might find useful on the front lines." He hesitated for a moment and cleared his throat. "I think you need to hear who she is."

Jeremy lowered his hands, turned to her and said, "We really don't have any standards here as to who gets to fight
,
so if you want to be on the frontlines, it's your call. What's your name and who are you that
,
I need to approve whether you get to join our cause?"

The lady with the reddish-brown hair turned her head up and let the light of the fire illuminate her face. "I think you might know me by the name
of
Pink."

The low clouds in the night sky continued to glow orange from the
many
bonfires scattered across the
Front Range
and
they
cast a dim glow on the land. Smoke from numerous makeshift crematoriums maintained a constant haze hanging in the air. Through the trees, distant fires flickered like single candles flames. Prometheus stood behind a tree watching the narrow dirt road for any movement. Midnight waited next to him
,
staring in the opposite direction. D
ispersed
through the forest, he could see glimpses of his fellow undead
,
all waiting for something living to come down the road.

Midnight spoke in a low voice and asked the Athenian, "Seeing how you are from ancient
Greece
, you should be able to confirm or deny one of the biggest mysteries of your time."

With a bit of interest in her question, he slightly turned from his post toward her. "What is this great mystery?"

"Did Atlantis really exist?"

The question slightly confused him. He
briefly
took his eyes off the road and glanced at the former dancehall girl. "Of course
,
Atlantis really existed. Why would anyone consider this to be a mystery?"

"During my lifetime, which was a little over a hundred years ago, no one could find the city. Maybe they've found it since then
,
but I haven't seen a newspaper in a very long time." Midnight brought her attention back to the road. "The only written record of it existed in Homer's,
Odyssey
,
and that was a work of fiction."

"Of course
,
Atlantis existed. I visited the fine city many times." Hearing her speak of his time in such a way, slightly angered the normally gentle man. "What do you
mean;
the
Odyssey
was a work of fiction? It was considered
one
of the greatest plays of our time. If you are familiar with it, this would indicate it lasted through the centuries."

"He did speak of actual cities and islands
,
but Homer also wrote about a giant Cyclops and witches turning men into pigs. Did you ever see a Cyclops? Did you ever meet a witch?"

"I…" Prometheus thought back and realized
that,
even though he never doubted their existence, he never did see such a beast. "I may have never seen such a creature
,
but many a good man
saw
and engaged in battle with the giants. If witches did not exist, then why would so many men speak of them?"

"Did you personally know someone who fought a Cyclops or was it a friend of a friend situation?"

The question made him again realize all his knowledge of the legend were based on stories passed down through the generations
,
and he had taken them as fact
,
with no other basis than to believe his elders. "I may have never met such a warrior
,
but so many men have claimed to have battled the beasts, how could they all be speaking non-truths?"

Captain Bartholomew and Patricia quietly walked up to the Greek man
,
causing him to halt his argument. Midnight tilted toward the pair and said, "Speaking of fiction, this is something
that
I never would have believed unless I saw it for myself."

Patricia asked, "What did you need to see?"

"If someone had told me, while I was alive, that I would one day join a band of rebels led by a pair of undead lovebird pirates, I would have considered them to be gale-minded."

Both of the pirates gave slight smirks as they glanced toward each other. Bartholomew replied, "I would have thought da same thing. Hearing such
demented
words would cause me ta run such a person through with me sword to rid them of da dementia." He glanced at Patricia, smiled and squeezed her hand.

Human voices emanating from the darkness at the far end of the road
,
stopped their conversation
,
as they all turned toward the source of the sound. Bartholomew and Patricia stepped up to the edge of the shadows bordering the road to gain a better view. Prometheus noticed how their hands automatically pressed down on the pommel of their swords
,
as if they prepared to board a merchant ship. Soft footsteps on the rocks and dirt, blended with the hiss and moans of the living voices as they rose in volume indicating they drew closer.