Erik Handy (9 page)

The zombies were closer, but still far off.

One of the village women stepped away from her group and pointed at the other villagers. She started to laugh as if she'd lost her mind. "You're dead!" she shouted at them. "You're all dead!" She then made out what had to be her brother -- her dead brother -- and she realized in that horrible moment that she would die, too.

The villagers were becoming visibly uneasy and agitated. These pale strangers weren't exactly strangers after all. They were family, neighbors, victims. Those guilty of wronging these unfortunate souls, dooming them in one way or another, felt their hearts drop into their stomachs. The bloody past had caught up with them.

The soldiers looked at one another, wondering what was going on and what would happen next.

Jacoby edged toward a jeep. No one paid attention to him.

The zombies advanced slowly --

-- then --

-- without warning --

-- sprinted to their human targets, the villagers.

At first.

Chapter 33

The soldiers formed a line between the strange intruders and the villagers. They raised their guns, ready to fire at the newcomers.

"Hold!" Raymond ordered.

The zombies were a few yards from the line.

The soldiers stood steady, nervous.

THUD. THUD.

From behind, some of the villagers threw rocks at the backs of the soldiers and the oncoming zombies. The soldiers turned to retaliate just as the zombies swept through their line.

For the most part, the zombies ignored the soldiers. Their targets were the villagers.

One of the soldiers, bombarded by rocks by one side and zombie on the other, fired a shot.

True Hell now broke loose.

The zombies were upon the villagers just as the first bullet hit the back of the head of one of the undead. The bullet sunk into the thing's skull. The impact didn't slow the thing down.

Bullets slammed into the zombies to no effect. This gradually dawned on, and dismayed, the soldiers.

Undeterred, the zombies continued their rampage.

The male villagers tried to fight off the new army with stones and bare hands, but the zombies would not quit. The female villagers joined in on defending their men and themselves by laying into the zombies with rocks and soft fists.

A villager lost his eyes as a zombie -- his neighbor he killed after bedding the man's wife -- raked at his face. Another villager went down under the weight of two zombies -- his two sisters he raped and murdered -- digging into his flesh.

Although the zombies numbered ten and the villagers and soldiers combined outnumbered them, the zombie remained steadfast in their mission. The zombies who had gotten the upperhand on their victims clawed and pulled at their victims' faces and throats.

A soldier tried to pry one off a villager, but the zombie knocked him away, paused, and then thought.

The zombie then turned on the soldier.

As if telepathically connected, his brethren split their focus on the villagers and the soldiers.

No one was safe. Those who protected the targets were now considered fair game as well.

Chapter 34

Two villagers ran into a hut for protection. One was the man Nolan stood off with twice.

Two soldiers followed closely.

Once inside, the four men worked together to barricade the doors and windows with any furniture or loose objects they could find.

It was too late.

A zombie appeared from the unlit rear of the hut. He assessed his options.

The soldiers opened fire until their guns ran dry.

The zombie took every shot and still stood.

The villagers didn't recognize the revenant because he was a stranger to them. Now, all the rules were lifted. All the living were fair game for the vengeance of the dead.

One of the soldiers struck the creature with the butt of his rifle, but was caught by the zombie's maggot-infested arm. The zombie pulled the soldier close and bit his face. Nose and cheek sloppily came off in the monster's teeth like chicken skin.

The other three men fled the hut.

Chapter 35

The zombies were making short work of everyone. A group of soldiers held one down, but the zombie gained some kind of reserve strength and powered out. He then fell upon a slow soldier and broke the man's neck.

A reason the soldiers and the villagers had a difficult time defending themselves was the sheer unbelievability of the whole situation. Some simply looked on in horror as their compatriots fell. Others turned numb and tuned everything out.

Another reason was that the zombies were invincible.

A few villagers had heard rumors of a vengeance ritual used to revive the dead. But they were only rumors. Fiction. Now, just fact.

Raymond was in the middle of the chaos, firing his revolver at the zombies, carefully avoiding his men, but not so much caring about the villagers. In fact, he shot one of the male villagers in the back of the head. He quickly shrugged the mistake off, then proceeded to his next target.

Were there really this many villagers before, Raymond thought. They seemed to come out of the wood work, fodder for his bullets and the tribe that were laying waste to them.

Rosalo tackled Raymond and began to choke the man with his unwounded arm.

The struggle was brief.

Rosalo managed to swipe Raymond's gun and shoot him dead. Without remorse, Rosalo turned and emptied the gun into anything that moved. Once the gun was empty, he tossed it and sought a way out from the killing ground.

He didn't feel any exhilaration from all the death around him. This was much different. Here, he wasn't in control of a man's life. He was barely in control of his own. He was close to death now, but he feared the death would be his own.

***

Nolan made for a jeep. The priest's rifle was slung clumsily over his shoulder, baby Jean Paul in his arms.

He thought these newcomers were another death cult or a rival tribe, but in the recesses of his inner core he wasn't entirely sure they were of human origin. The way they tore at the villagers and policeman alike -- and to do so without so much as anger on their faces -- made the priest consider the possibility that they came straight from Hell. But there was no time for such musings. Nolan had to get out of there. Now.

A hut burst into flames.

Two zombies pulled a female villager out of the engulfed hut by her bare feet. Once out of the burning hut, the zombies bombarded her with punches.

She screamed the whole time, more so when they shoved their hands into her stomach and stretched out her innards.

Nolan tried to ignore the hell around him and strapped the baby into the front seat of a jeep as much as a bundled baby could be without a proper car seat. The priest discarded his rifle and jumped into the vehicle. As he revved the jeep, he spied Jacoby already taking off in a jeep of his own.

Damn him, Nolan thought.

He pulled out after the constable.

Rosalo jumped in the back of Nolan's jeep just as it sped off.

Chapter 36

After Jacoby and Nolan left, the chaos wound down. Some soldiers who had either remained calm or experienced a remarkable moment of sanity fled into the dark jungle. They ran on, not followed by anyone, living or resurrected.

The rest of the villagers, however, were not as lucky. Even those women who didn't speak out against their men were torn and broken. Those who attempted to make for the jungle were easily caught and killed by the white figures.

Another hut caught fire. Smoke hung heavy. The air would eventually clear and the jungle would reclaim this refuge for its own. A reset for the next generation. A tableau of the impossible for the present.

No humans -- villager, brother, or wife -- were left alive.

Ten pale zombies stood amid the human wreckage.

Chapter 37

The sun was rising. Light finally began to settle upon the jungle road, seemingly a stranger to these parts.

Jacoby's jeep careened down the narrow road. He was sweating and he was scared.

That was no cult, he swore. Maybe a tribe. Maybe . . . no.

He focused on the road ahead, paying no heed to whatever lay behind him. If he looked at his side mirror, he would have found Nolan closing in on him at breakneck speed.

Chapter 38

Nolan checked Jean Paul, who was as happy as a baby could be in the passenger's seat. The baby gurgled as if the outside world didn't matter. And maybe it didn't. Maybe this one didn't matter either. Maybe nothing outside of mere life and death mattered. The time between those two moments were superfluous, forgotten points of history.

The priest gained on Jacoby.

Nolan considered what he would do when he caught up with the constable. Berate him? Kick his ass? The rage flushing his face hinted at a much darker action.

Nolan checked his side mirror and immediately spotted a hand from inside the jeep snaking its way forward along the side.

Nolan turned just as Rosalo struck like a rattler, jabbing the priest in the head.

The jeep swerved, but Nolan corrected.

Rosalo grabbed for the baby. Nolan slammed on the brakes.

Rosalo flew through the measly windshield, taking it out in one piece, and landed somewhere in front of the vehicle.

Nolan peered over the hood. Rosalo was still down.

Rosalo.

Evil. The darkest part of this piece of the world. Unchecked. Unrelenting.

Nolan checked over Jean Paul once more. He was okay.

Rosalo had to be stopped. Now.

Nolan got out of the jeep and was instantly assaulted by the crazed man. Rosalo pounded him with a series of lefts. The priest went down and stayed there for a second too long.

Nolan's strength faded, that last ounce of fervor and vigor zapped. But his faith . . . the lone light in the darkness . . . . that was dead, that reliance on what was or was not God's will. Nolan knew there was only Man's will. What pained Nolan more than that truth was that Rosalo, and Jacoby, had to teach it to him. Damn them.

Rosalo picked up a rather large rock from the side of the road. The look of the man and the stone exuded nothing but menace and murder.

"You have deprived me of my dream, priest," Rosalo said. "For that you will die."

All Nolan saw was the rock in the madman's hand.

"Tell me, priest," Rosalo continued. "How does it feel to know that your god has failed here?"

Nolan got to one knee.

Rosalo advanced. "
You
have failed here."

Nolan tossed a handful of pebbles and dirt up, briefly confusing Rosalo. As soon as the particles flew, Nolan launched from one knee and tackled the man.

Rosalo swung the rock, hitting Nolan's left shoulder.

Nolan winced and just laid into Rosalo with weak lefts and stronger rights. God may have failed here, but I haven't, the power of each blow said.

Rosalo let go of his rock. He tried to put up a hand in defense.

No good.

Rosalo's defense didn't match his earlier psychotic offense or Nolan's current flurry.

Nolan grabbed the rock and smashed Rosalo's face in with one crunching blow.

The priest's recoil of terror was instantaneous. Nolan scurried off Rosalo as if the man was a fire ant hill. He had to distance himself from his act.

He fully realized the impact of what he just did. Murder. He did what he had to regardless of the consequences. There was no time for an internal dialogue.

The baby let out a small cry.

Nolan sat frozen for a second before attending to the baby.

Chapter 39

Jacoby slowed to a crawl as he passed through the massacre site. Bodies of both his fellow law officers and of their ambushers lined the road.

He was itching to clear this mess. To get out of the jungle. To drive past his town and go into the city. Away from all this.

Then he saw it.

A lone male zombie stood in the road ahead.

Yet another wave of fear swept through Jacoby. They wouldn't let him get away!

Jacoby bit his bottom lip and hit the accelerator.

The zombie took the inevitable impact with no emotion.

The jeep barreled forward, zombie on the front, eyes locked on Jacoby. Those eyes reminded Jacoby of every iota of inaction and corruption he took part of. Every neglected person glared at him from those two dead orbs. The wife whose husband wound up beating her close to death after she sought the constable's help. The bartender he never paid. The grocer he extorted money from. The sons he had, but never bothered to take care of; the sons who died too young. The mother he lied to. The twelve year old prostitute.