The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (37 page)

"It sounds like you've given up."

"No, you gave up. We need you back in your lab
,
making a stronger anti-virus. It won't be long until the re-ans adapt to this strain and make it useless."

"There's plenty of labs making anti-virus. I'm taking my fight to the front lines. I'm not going to hide behind test tubes any longer."

"No, that's how we are going to lose this war. Think about it. How are we being wiped out? Look at the damage the Omega virus did to our population. The re-ans are killing us with their cells. This is a war where the front lines are on a microscopic level."

Three civilian
militiamen
appeared through the dark shadows of the trees in the dimming light of dusk and shouldered their scrap metal swords. The man with a bushy red beard stepped forward and said, "We were down by the road when we smelled your mash. You wouldn't have any extra? Our med kit is out of antiseptic." He gave a slight smile
,
indicating he didn't really think they would believe
that
he wanted it for medical reasons.

Pink rolled her eyes and continued her conversation with Daniel. "Think about how fast the Omega virus killed off
China
and
Eastern Europe
. We can do the same to the re-ans. If you and the other lab geeks can get our remaining population vaccinated, by this time next year
,
we will be rebuilding our society. We'll have electricity and hot showers
,
instead of hiding in the trees."

Bushy Red Beard chimed in and said, "Ah, guys?"

Daniel glanced up and saw the man pointing to the ground
at
the edge of the fire light. He stood up to see over the fire and saw the rotted body of a dead Raven bound into the clearing. It pecked at the ground
, and
then looked up at the humans. It had one eye missing and a decayed hole in its chest with small broken ribs protruding. Daniel grabbed his
battle-axe
and stood ready to fight. The three militia soldiers held out their
swords
and stepped back to back
,
watching all points of the clearing. Pink remained sitting on the log
,
warming her hands showing little concern over the possibility of an attack.

From the trees, behind the Raven, came the low moaning sounds of the re-ans. The men formed a wall in front of Pink. Daniel saw movement in the shadows of the tree and said, "There they are."

Six re-ans slowly emerged from the darkness into the light of the fire. Their torn clothing was encrusted with dried blood and
it
covered
their decayed gray skin. The smell of rotten meat swept through the camp as they staggered closer to the fire. Their moans mixed with hissing gave an
eerie
chill to the already cold air. Blood mixed with saliva dripped from their black and broken teeth. One of them held out his hand with bones showing through the dead skin as he screeched.

Bushy Red Beard said, "We need to move around and encircle them. That's our best chance of not getting
bitten
. You two go to the left. Me and this guy will-"

Pink stood up and cut him off. "You idiots." She reached into Daniels backpack and pulled out the bottle of moonshine. "Stand back!" she barked out at the soldiers, who parted, giving
her
clear line of sight to the undead.

The men took a few steps back from the fire as the demons closed the distance. Pink, unscrewed the top of the bottle and threw the contents at the re-ans. As the alcohol flew over the top of the fire, it ignited and landed on the undead. The zombies burst into flames as their screeches intensified. They staggered into each other and fell to the ground with their dried clothing sending colored flames into the darkness. As their movement ceased, Daniel saw their blackened charred bodies continue to boil from the small amounts of burning fat left under their skin.

Pink reached into her pack and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun. She
turned
away from the fire toward the dark forest behind her. "Those re-ans were the distraction. They wanted to draw our attention over there
,
so they could sneak up behind us."

Two more zombies staggered out of the darkness into the light. She walked right up to their rotted bodies, placed the end of the barrel against the face of the first undead and pulled the trigger. Its head exploded in a cloud of blood and brain matter. Bushy Red Beard swung his sword at the second re-an
,
decapitating it. Both dead torsos fell on top of each other at her feet. Pink turned back to Daniel and asked, "So how do you like fighting on the frontlines now?"

Inside the sandbag
bunker
, Daniel listened to the young military man give his report on the latest statistics gathered from the various war zones. The smell of smoke from the nearby crematoriums lofted through the air with an unavoidable sickly sweet smell. Occasional sporadic gunshots echoed in the distance. Pink sat next to him with a navy blue wool hat pulled down tight around her face and a scarf bundled up high around her neck. Even though the majority of the current soldiers had no idea who she was, she wanted to be cautious about her identity. She sat low in the chair and kept her head down. The limited lighting offered by the kerosene lamps assisted in concealing her face.

The soldier at the end of the table wore a uniform, which appeared to be one size too big for his thin frame. The scuffed up stars on his collar sat crooked
,
indicating the 25 year old had only recently been promoted to General
,
and his brass had been handed down several times. He glanced at the small piece of dark slate with the numbers written in white chalk. "The latest counts are in. For the first time
,
since we started the re-an census, their numbers have dropped, not much
,
but they didn't increase which means our counter attack with the anti-virus might be working."

Daniel sat up and asked, "Could it be an error in the data sample? We went through a population decrease once before. It was followed by an explosion of re-ans in areas where we thought we had eliminated them."

"I don't think this is the case here." The young officer shook his head as he glanced at the chalkboard again. "This is a compilation of numbers from all over the country and a few sites in
Canada
. We haven't received any hard figures from
Europe
,
but we hear they are finding the same thing in areas where the anti-virus has been distributed." The young General set the slate down on the table and addressed all those at the table. "It looks like the momentum is finally going our way." He quickly pointed to the scientist. "Thanks to Dr. Cronsworth and his colleagues, the anti-virus they developed is working."

Daniel responded, "However, the living are still taking a big hit from the Omega virus.

Do you have any numbers on our total population?"

The young General rubbed the back of his neck and let out a sigh. With hesitation in his voice, he said, “
These are
all rough estimates of course, but I hear the population in the United States is somewhere around seventy million.” Those around the table mumbled their surprise. “It’s hard to get data out of
Europe;
so many countries have gone dark. The numbers I've heard are
that
England
might be down to eight million and
Germany
is somewhere around ten million.”

An officer with shoulder length dark hair,
sitting
at the table, across from Pink asked, “What about
France
?”

“All indications right now are that
France
has gone dark. We haven't heard a thing from them in over two weeks. There are no more refugees coming out of the country and living animals have not been seen around the borders. This seems to be the final indication in most countries that they
are
off the grid.”

A civilian man wearing a worn flannel shirt with a few torn holes and dirty jeans walked in the bunker and whispered something in the General’s ear. The officer shook his head and brought his attention back to the table. “We’ve been experiencing some outbreaks of violence from civilians at some of the distribution points. We need to assign more men to the food rationing stations to help keep the crowds under control. Coronel Frank has asked if we can post some units along the highways. There are reports of pirates attacking refugee caravans along the Interstate routes. They’re getting bold and not only going after civilians, they’re attacking military trucks as well. A lot of our corn and sugar has been showing up on the black market. Its value for making alcohol appears to be greater than its value as food.” He pointed to one of his officers at the far end of the table. “John, can you take care of that for me? We are losing enough men to the re-ans, we don't need to lose more from our own kind.”

The older man with a gray beard nodded his head.

The young officer glanced down at his
chalkboard
and continued, "Here's something strange. There are reports from
Texas
,
New York
,
Iowa
,
Oregon
and even here in
Colorado
of re-ans attacking military food caravans and only stealing coffee. For some
reason,
the meat bags are attracted to the stuff. Some units have mentioned using the beans as bait to lure them into a trap, but nobody wants to give up any of their rations."

A soldier sitting next to Daniel said, "Coffee is one of the most valuable commodities right now. With Brazil going dark, it's going to be
scarcer
and we could even see it being used as the next form of currency. People are already using it as a bartering unit."

The general nodded his head in agreement and ended his meeting with, "That's all I have for now. Remember to tell your people to walk when possible and use horses if they have them. We need to conserve all the fuel we can."

As the people around the table stood to leave, the young officer said, "Dr. Cronsworth, I need to speak to you outside."

As she skirted past all the military men,
Pink kept her head down and
then
ventured out of the entrance into the daylight.

Outside, under the gray sky and smoke filled air, the general stepped to the side of the bunker to pass on additional information. Nearby, a steam engine turned an electrical generator providing power to the radio tent. The coal fire under the boiler coughed out black smoke
,
which towered high into the atmosphere. Next to the
corral
of horses,
mash was still cooking in
a large pot
,
turning it into much needed alcohol fuel. At the far end of the camp, Daniel noticed a six foot high stack of dead bodies
waiting
to be placed in the crematorium
, which had
more smoke bellowing out the top. The General noticed the scientist stare at the corpses and said, "Those are the most recent nightly drops."