Zombies (4 page)
Research into voodoo zombies has often been confused by the presence of “fake zombies” or “living zombies.” Haiti remains a poorly policed state, and in many areas local gang bosses use the threat of zombification to terrify the populace. But these greedy and dangerous individuals rarely agree to pay for the services of a bokor, even if one can be found. Instead, these men sometimes buy a diluted form of zombie powder, which they use to poison those who attempt to defy them. While not poisonous enough to kill, the powder causes a deep paralysis. The gang then buries their victim in a mock funeral and leaves them trapped underground for half a day. The victim, still suffering from the poison and partial asphyxiation, is then dug up and beaten. The effect of this horrendous treatment can often break the spirit of an individual and reduce him to a highly suggestible, half-comatose state that resembles zombification in many ways.
These fake zombies have led to many cases of mistaken identity, and have made both bokors and voodoo zombies appear to be much more common than is actually the case. While the Haitian government has outlawed the use of drugs as a means of threat or intimidation, this does little to stop the practice. Fake zombies have also led to the creation of several “zombie rehabilitation centers,” a concept that would be laughable in the case of true zombies.
The most fragile of all zombie types, voodoo zombies can be eliminated by either destroying the brain or through large amounts of damage to the body. A single shotgun blast or several shots from an assault rifle usually takes them down. Unlike other necromantic zombie types, killing a bokor does not automatically destroy his zombies, but the zombies will deanimate the second that their
zombi astral
is set free.
Because of their long association with the black magic of voodoo, the inhabitants of Haiti have invented many ways of preventing a loved one from becoming a zombie. Since cremation is generally out of the question, many families elect to rekill a corpse by destroying the brain or cutting the throat. Some even go so far as to sew the mouths shut to make the application of zombie powder more difficult. The most common form of prevention is for the family to stand guard over the body or grave for two days after death, ensuring that the soul safely passes on to the next world.
While voodoo zombies are rarely employed as weapons, most bokors select a couple of their smartest and toughest creations to act as bodyguards, using them to intimidate their foes and to provide cover if a quick getaway proves necessary.
Note the zombie with the sewn mouth. This may have been done by the family of the deceased individual to try to protect against zombification, or just as likely, by the necromancer himself to try to guard against the dangers of salt.
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“Bokor” can have different meanings depending on where it is used. I am using it only in its most common definition.
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Despite their name,
zombi astral
are an ethereal form of undead, and thus beyond the scope of this investigation.
Hidden beneath the British World War II codebreaking center at Bletchley Park is a vast basement, officially called “The Cloak Room.” All access points to the rooms were sealed in 1947, and since then no one, government or civilian, has set eyes on the place. According to the records, the Cloak Room served as an intelligence gathering center, but those records are exceedingly vague as to what information was collected. It is only in recent years, as the generation that worked in those rooms has begun to pass on, that a few whispered voices have spoken about the place as the location of Supreme Allied Command: Shadow Theater (SAC:ST). It was from these rooms that American General E. L. Whately organized a war within a war and led the battle against the Nazi Occult Division. While credit and honor is justly given to the Allied soldiers who fought against the Nazi war machine, the men and women who worked for SAC:ST should also be remembered. If not for their tireless efforts and great sacrifices, Allied victory might have proved impossible and the earth consumed by an endless tide of Nazi undead.
The story of the Nazi undead program begins in 1917 when a wounded German World War I veteran named Walter Nauhaus founded the Society of Thule.
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Based in Munich, the secret order devoted itself to the pursuit of necromantic knowledge. With the end of the Great War, the society expanded, adding new members from across Germany, including Adolf Hitler. Through subtle manipulations, Hitler and his supporters shifted the attention of most of the group away from occult rituals toward the idea of Aryan supremacy and melded the society with the German Workers' Party.
The Nazi expedition to Tibet.
However, with the dissolution of the Society of Thule, Hitler founded a new group called “The Brotherhood of Death,” which included all of the foremost occultists from the old society. As Hitler rose to power in Germany, the brotherhood rose with him. Word leaked across the globe that necromancers everywhere would be safe and welcomed by the Nazis. By the mid-1930s, it is estimated that between thirty and forty practicing necromancers had joined the Nazi ranks, and at least three times that number of acolytes were in training.
Thankfully, European necromancy was still suffering from the governmental offensives since the American Civil War. Huge amounts of knowledge had been lost. While a few sightings of early Nazi zombie experiments occurred in the 1930s, they were few and far between. The senior members of the Brotherhood knew they would have to look beyond the borders of Europe to regain this knowledge, and they pressed Hitler to organize an expedition to the Himalayas. Hitler, now busy with other matters, passed the request along to Heinrich Himmler, who in turn found his man in the SS officer, Ernst Schäfer. The young and popular Schäfer had already participated in two expeditions into Tibet, and he wanted to lead his own. A student of anthropology, Schäfer had no interest in necromancy and originally refused to take any such wizards on his team. However, after the tragic death of his wife in a hunting accident, Schäfer had a change of heart and allowed several members of the Brotherhood to accompany the mission.
The expedition proved a tremendous success, for Nazi propaganda, for European anthropology, and for the necromancers of The Brotherhood of Death. There are no records of exactly what knowledge the Brotherhood obtained, but the expedition marked a turning point in their efforts. From 1939 onward, the Nazi undead program slowly gained strength and confidence. There are at least two recorded incidents of
Polish villages being attacked by zombified Polish soldiers. In 1940, the Nazis unleashed a unit of armed and uniformed zombies called the
Todesritter
(or “Death Knights”) during their invasion of Denmark.
The Crusader forces attacking Antioch, where they discovered the Spear of Longinus.
While the
Todesritter
proved effective shock units, even the dozens of necromancers employed by the Nazis could not make a material difference in a war that would eventually involve millions. Hitler demanded a weapon that could sweep his enemies aside, especially the Russians. The Brotherhood, using the knowledge acquired in Tibet, realized the only way to produce such an army would be to overcome the monotheistic burial limitation, and the only hope of that lay in finding some of the ancient artifacts of the great religions. Thus the Nazis launched Operation
Eklipse
.
While
Eklipse
saw many successes and failures, three missions stood far above the rest in importance. The first was the search for the Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis did briefly obtain the Ark, however American agents managed to recapture it before it could do any damage.
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The second was the search for
Zulfiqar
, the legendary sword of Muhammad, which ended in disaster when an entire German division fell prey to an ancient curse. The last was the mission to capture the Spear of Destiny, better known to Western readers as the Spear of Longinus â the holy lance that pierced the side of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross. In 1941 a group of
Fallschirmjäger
(German paratroopers) recovered the lance from its hiding place in Antioch, and removed it back to Germany. With this lance, the necromancers of the Brotherhood believed that they could raise up the millions upon millions of dead who had been buried with Christian rites.
We will likely never know the full story of the grim battle waged by the forces of the SAC:ST to recapture the spear, nor the names of the men and women who died ensuring it could never be used. All we really know is that for the next three years the spear was moved all over Germany, but everywhere the Nazis took it, Allied agents were waiting to pounce. The toll of these suicide missions must have stretched the SAC:ST to the limit, but in the end, it was enough. Hounded at every turn, the Brotherhood never had a chance to make use of the spear or its potential power. In 1945, elements of Patton's armored forces recovered the spear, which was shipped back to the United States. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
Without the Spear of Longinus, the necromancers never played a decisive role in World War II. That said, they still exacted a terrible price on the Allies. On the Eastern Front it is estimated that the Nazis created nearly a million zombies. Most of these were flung at the Russians during the German retreat to Berlin. At first, the
Todesritter
proved extremely effective against the conscripted and poorly motivated Russian troops. However, even for the dead, the laws of warfare still applied. The Nazi zombie hordes could never achieve complete victory without armored support, armor the Nazis just didn't possess by that phase of the war. Despite the damage they inflicted, most of the
Todesritter
ended up ground beneath the treads of T-34 tanks.
The largest concentration of Nazi zombie forces was deployed during the Kursk offensive in 1943. While primarily remembered as a tank battle, the Germans began their attack by unleashing several divisions of
Todesritter
against the Russian defenses. While these zombies created havoc in the first tier of the Russian fortifications, they soon became isolated and proved easy prey for a Russian armored counterattack. Casualties for these battles are nearly impossible to calculate as it is difficult to determine which soldiers were dead before the battle started.