The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (43 page)

Salsa pressed her lips against the lady pirate and pulled her close. As they pulled apart, Patricia said, "I can understand the human."

The zombie queen with the blue eyes walked around the stage kissing the other living dead. After she smacked Prometheus on the lips, he heard the woman say, "Why is it you no longer look so dead and decayed? You almost look like you're still alive. What's happening to me? Have I transformed into a re-an?"

Salsa stepped in front of the woman and said, "Let's start with your name."

With astonishment cemented on her face, the woman cautiously said, "My name's Pink."

Reaching in one of the pockets on her long coat, Salsa pulled out the white video camera. She switched it on and handed it to Prometheus. "General Brown gave this to me. I would say if there was ever a time to update our Facebook status, it would be now."

The ancient Greek man shook his head in confusion. "I don't understand."

Salsa wrapped her hands around his to show him how to hold the electronic device. "Just hold this steady and keep this end pointed at me and our new friend. The camera will do the rest."

Pink called out, "What's going on? Why can I understand what you're saying? You're not groaning and hissing at me anymore. Have you always had the ability to speak? What are you going to do with me?"

"You are also no longer moaning and hissing at
us,
missy." Salsa
said,
as she strutted around her prisoner. "You have been chosen to bring our message to the world. Consider it
an
honor. You've made it into the history books. They are going to build statues of you in parks. You are going to be the key to human survival."

Holding her bound hands up, she replied, "Please let me go. I don't want to become one of you. Once, there was a time when I actually fought for your rights. I'm not the person you want for this plan."

Walking around the stage, Salsa explained, "See this man holding the camera, he's from ancient
Greece
. The man who grabbed you on the road is an ancient samurai warrior and the woman beside him sailed the world's oceans as a pirate during the eighteenth century. I walked the same streets as you. We probably stood in line for coffee together and
we
never knew it. You see, when we died, our souls were transferred to these bodies. It's the god's way of recycling."

"Your souls were transferred into dead bodies? Why?"

"We all carry new strands of DNA. Humans need these new genes to continue to evolve on this planet."

"How do you have new DNA? Why would we need this to continue our evolution? What gods sent you here?"

Continuing her performance, Salsa removed her top hat, held it out for one of her servants to take from her hand. "So many questions and so little time." She paused and the distant sounds of the battle filtered through the auditorium. "It's called gene fade and the human population has reached its end. Your gradual extinction has already begun. Without these new strands of life, you will go the way of the dinosaurs. Think of it as though the gods have given you the chance to start over."

"What are these new strands? How are they going to keep us from going extinct? What gods are you talking about?"

"We carry all kinds of goodies. As you probably guessed, I have the ability to understand all languages. When I kissed you and transferred my saliva into your mouth, you acquired this trait when you ingested my DNA."

Pink glanced around the stage at the other undead. "What other abilities do the other re-ans have?"

Salsa placed one finger on Prometheus' shoulder. "Our Greek friend here has the ability to cure all cancers. I'm sure the drug companies are going to hate that." She walked
to
the stage and pointed to various zombies. "We have the cure for diabetes, immunity to poisons, vision in new light spectrums, the Omega virus and pretty much any thing mentioned in all of the medical journals."

"So you have the cures for all diseases and all we have to do is ingest some of your DNA and we will continue to evolve? We will be free of disease and all other maladies which have plagued us throughout time."

Salsa stopped her strut in front of her prisoner. "It's a little more complicated than that, but you have the basic idea."

An explosion tore through the heavy wooden doors at the entrance to the theatre. Soldiers poured through the settling smoke with
flamethrowers
. Zombies caught in the streams of fire ran toward the attackers. They wrapped their fiery bodies around the soldiers
,
causing the
flamethrower
units to explode into massive fireballs.

General Brown and his men burst into the auditorium behind the soldiers engaged in battle with the humans. The clang of metal swords echoed off the walls. Several grenades went off in different parts of the room. As the smoke cleared, the large number of living dead had surrounded the few remaining soldiers. Gathered in a circle in the center of the theatre, a soldier pulled a grenade out of his side pouch. As the other
soldiers
placed their hands on the explosive, Prometheus heard him yell, "If we're done, we're taking as many of you bastards with us as possible."

Salsa screamed from the stage, "No! Wait!"

The grenade detonated and shredded both the humans and undead spraying their body parts throughout the room. While the debris fell to the ground and the smoke settled, General Brown slowly stood from underneath a mound of crumbled drywall and said, "We don't have much time before their reinforcements arrive. We need to get Salsa out of here." He glanced up at the front of the room as fear and excitement spread across his face. He ran and jumped up on the stage where Patricia and Salsa kneeled over their human captive.

Brown stood over them and called out, "Pink! Is it really you?"

Still holding the video camera, Prometheus pointed it toward the human lady who had a wooden shard from the shredded front doors, sticking out of her chest. Blood oozed out of the wound as she struggled to breathe. The former military leader dropped to one knee, lifted her head gently in his hand and said, "Hold on we'll get you some help." He couldn't understand her response and asked, "What's she saying?"

Salsa grabbed the back of his head and kissed him. With his eyes refocused on Pink he said, "You can't die, not now. I'll get you to a mobile hospital. They'll get this little splinter out of you and you'll be as good as new."

With blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth, Pink responded, "Who are you?"

"It's me Chris. I know it doesn't look like me. When I died, my soul was placed in this strange body, but I promise I'm the same person who's had a pathetic schoolboy crush on you for years."

"You had a crush on me?" She managed to form a slight smile through the pain. "Why didn't you ask me out on a date? You would have liked my answer."

"The general and the tree hugger named Pink. What an odd couple we would have made. Plus, I was two feet taller than
you were
. Dancing would have been a problem."

Pink tried to bring a smile to her face through all the pain. "I think we would have been a great team."

He wiped some of the blood away from her mouth. "I always wanted to ask, how did you get the name Pink? It couldn't be the name your parents gave you."

"It's comes from my last name, Rosasingen. In
German,
it means pink song. So, all my friends started calling me Pink."

"What's your real name?"

Before she could answer, Pink closed her eyes and passed away in his arms. Brown lowered his head in sorrow. Salsa grabbed the video camera from Prometheus, turned it off, and placed in Pink's front pants pocket. She pointed to two of her
bodyguards
. "You guys need to take her to that lab where you found me. The one we sometimes use as a safe house. There's a freezer in the back that's still operational. We'll place her body inside to keep it preserved. After we spread our message to the rest of the humans, they can give her a
decent
burial. Maybe she can be the first human buried as a symbol the war is over."

The undead bodyguards lifted her from the stage floor and carried toward the back entrance to the theater. Prometheus spoke up, "I'll go with them to help place her at peace." As Salsa glanced up at him with fright in her eyes, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He slapped his hand on the source and found a small red dart. The concussion from an explosion caused his ears to go deaf while he fell to the ground. He saw more re-ans fall with red darts in various parts of the
ir
bodies. His body felt as though it burned from the inside.

Salsa pulled out a handgun tucked
it
in her waistband, and fired it into the auditorium as an explosion erupted behind her. The giant red curtain fell from the rafters. A zombie engulfed in flames ran across the stage in a silent
macabre
scene
as Prometheus slowly closed his eye while darkness and silence fell upon him.

Prometheus opened his eyes and saw a mat of intertwined green
vines
covering the ceiling. They ran down the decayed curved walls and spread out on the dirt floor. Sunlight lit the area from the large opening to the tunnel a few feet away. Beyond the entrance, blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon
,
as fresh clean smelling air lofted through the tunnel. He sat up and saw himself surrounded by people draped in animal skins. Judging by the grayness of their skin and the stringiness of their hair, he knew they had to be re-ans.

One of the undead touched the Greek man's face and said, "It worked. The song of dead and this body brought one of our ancestors back to us and he has the legendary
blue
eyes. I told you the song is more important than the dance." He turned toward the Athenian. "Please tell us where you are from."

Prometheus swung his legs to the side of the table and tried to clear his mind. He did not know if had returned to the same
world
or if the gods had placed him in a new domain. "I am from
Athens
many centuries ago. What is your name?"

"My name is General and I am of the
Douglas
tribe."

The Greek man scanned the remains of the tunnel covered in live growth. It had been years since he had seen green foliage. "Is the war over?" He looked down at his primitive brown soft leather shirt and pants made from deer hide.

The undead around him stepped back with astonishment. Their leader said, "Do you know of the war between the humans and the Rans?"

"Yes, I was there at the beginning and many of its years thereafter. Is it over? Did the humans take the strings of life?"

General said to him, "The war has been over for a little more than one hundred years. We only know of it from stories told to us by the elders." He paused and brought his glance downward. "That is the stories our elders told us when we were still alive."

The Athenian slid off the crude wooden table and walked out of the tunnel entrance. Outside, for the first time in years, he saw a clear sky, trees filled with green leaves, and heard the songs of birds with no ravens to be seen anywhere. The ground was void of war
debris, demolished building,
and only carpeted with various green grasses and colorful flowers. "Where are we? This does not look like the future world where we fought the livings."