Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (18 page)

As he closed his eyes
, ready
to meet his fate
,
he felt a hand grab hold of his wrist
,
arresting his fall
.
He looked up and w
as shocked to see
Pizarro
’s grim face staring back at him
.
He
grimaced
with the
strain of the weight
of the
two
bodies
and
t
hen Minco saw the thin rapier blade
of his sword
appear
. He jabbed downwards and forc
ed his weapon
down
and
through the undead soldier’s brain.
The
beast
’
s
mouth
wrenched open,
and then
at last,
it
stopped moving
altogether. T
he rest of its body
fell slack and
it
rel
eased
its
iron
grip
on
Minco’s
ankle
.
Both
Minco
and
Pizarro
watched as it
plummeted
down into the
dusty void below
.

With a few heavy
grunts,
Pizarro
managed to pull
Minco and the
n the
last
of his me
n up onto the bridge. They stood
silently at the edge
, looking
across
the gap
at the
angry
swarm of the undead
a
massed
not
much more
thirt
y feet away.
Teeth snapped and
fingers grasped at
the
empty air.
In the
ensuing
madness
,
a few of the undead
toppled off the edge
s
of the bridge, pushed
by the force of the
ever-ravening
crowd
and
they too
fell
away
and
out of sight.
For e
very second
that passed, more were joining the group already at the bridge and
every
single
one
of them
had
fresh, wet
bloodstains on their mouths.

Pizarro
was the first to move away
.
He made his way back
to
the
main group
of survivors and glanced
at Minco as he turned. Minco nodded his
thanks,
but
no words were
necessary.
Both
men
knew
that
Pizarro
had not saved Minco
out of
any ideas of
friendship
o
r love
. E
verything
Pizarro
had
done
, or ever would do,
was for the gold
he had been promised
. He
knew he
needed
to keep
Minco
alive
if he was ever going to get his treasure.

“Everyone
,
get inside the pyramid,” Minco shouted so
that
all
of
the survivors
could hear
him
clearly
. “Go straight
to the main chamber. W
e need to get out of sight of the undead.”
With
a
last look
over
at the
army of
Ukhu Pacha
,
he followed the rest
of the living
up the stone steps and into the mighty pyramid.

Pizarro
watched as the Protector guided his shocked
sovereign
in through the
ornate
doors
of the large room
along with the
remaining
few
of his men. The Spaniard looked at his
own
numbers;
he still had close to fifty
of his
soldiers left
, more than the Incans
.
This
sight,
at least
,
made him feel a little
bit
better.

11
- A Plan
is Hatched

“We’re
trapped
in here like
damn
ed
rats
,” Almargo hissed
through gritted teeth
as
t
he
y
all
took a
welcome
breather
deep
inside the pyramid
.
“There’s
no
bloody
way out
of here
.
So
can you
please tell me
something
,
Colonel-
w
hat the hell are we going to
do
now
?
”

Pizarro
saw the look of
disgust
mingled with despair in his old friend’s
eyes.
It was a look with which he was growing unpleasantly familiar on this mission. Almargo
had followed him
for
nearly
all
of
his adult life
,
and had
always
done so without question. Now,
Pizarro
felt his heart fall as he realised that at this moment, Almargo would rather be anywhere else
.

“Go
outside
and c
heck
on
our defences,”
Pizarro
said, barely
making eye contact
.
In order to avoid another argument, he’d give Almargo something to do until he
hopefully
calmed down a little.
“
I need
us to
make certain
the
perimeter
is
secure
and you are the only man I trust to get
it
done right
. We
’re going to
need a
bit
more
time
and
I don’t want any
more surprises
.
”

Almargo did
n
o
t move
a muscle
on this order
.
He just kept on staring.

“Please
,
my
old
friend,”
Pizarro
said
,
however,
this time
he had no choice but to
look
at
him
direct
in the eye
. “
You must know that
I need you
with me now more than ever. I promise
you
,
w
e’ll get through this
, just like we always do
. Trust me.”

Muttering something under his breath
,
Almargo
shook his head and stormed off.

As he watched his
faithful
friend leave
,
Pizarro
thought
somewhat dolefully of
all
the good times they
had
shared
through the years
.
Rather than dwell on the negative, h
e
joined
Minco and his men
at
a
large
opening
. They were staring at the
city below
and he could see the anguish on their face
.
This was their home and all they could do was bear witness to its ruin.

Only a
few handfuls of people
still
fought to keep the hordes at bay
,
but it was
only
a
futile at
tempt. No matter what they did
to evade them
,
t
hey were
quickly
overrun and
torn to
pieces.
I
t seemed
that for the moment,
the horde had no
more
need for
any
new recruits. The
se
fresh
victims were picked clean
down
to the bone
;
and
once the food was gone
,
the beasts began
to scream,
already starving
for more
.
As
the last of the citizens
of Cuzco
were devoured
,
all
of the undead
closed in. Numbering in the
thousands
,
they
soon
surrounded the pyramid.
From their height,
Pizarro
thought they resembled an army of swarming ants.

“
There’s no use in
even thinking about
fighting
our way out of this
. W
e
’
ll n
ever be able to defeat them
,” Inguill
said as she
join
ed t
he
silent, watching soldiers
. “All of our
combined
forces have been
destroyed in under an
hour;
the few
that
we have left are no match for them.”

“W
hy thank you for telling us this
,
my lady,”
Pizarro
snorted
, his voice grew louder and louder
along
with his ire
. “Many, many
thanks;
w
e
’
d never have worked
that
out for ourselves
. I must say
it’s a good job
for us
that
you
’
re here.”

Minco glared at the Spaniard and took a
couple of
step
s
towards him.
He would not
let him
get away with
this;
n
o one would
be allowed to
disrespect his
one true
love
without a penalty to pay
.
Pizarro
saw his
anger
and
casually
held his hand up in a feeble attempt of
an
apology.
It did
n
o
t
work;
Minco still strode
right
towards him
.

“Don
’
t
you dare
mock me,
Spaniard,
” Inguill said as she
too
moved forward, standing
directly
between the two men
,
thus
stopping Minco’s
angry
advance
.
She spoke to the
m
both.
“
All I
was
saying is that we need to think about another way of defeating this threat
. A
xes and swords
are not
going to be
enough
.
We need to use our minds and not our weapons, a
nd I know how we can do just that!”

Both Minco and
Pizarro
gazed at
Inguill with puzzled
intrigue.
Their thoughts of killing each other
had
disappeared
along
with her words.

“W
e
know
Taipi
must have
raised
the
army
of Supay in the Forbidden City. If we can find our way
back
to
Huacas,
we can bring an end to all this
.
”

“What
are you
talking
about,
woman
?”
Pizarro
said
incredulously
. “
Am I
to understand that in order to end this, we have to get past that horde down there and reach an entirely different city
?
”
He glanced out
at the monsters
below
and shook his head
. “There must be even more of th
ose damn
things back there.
My apologies,
but that
sounds like
a
suicide mission
to me
.
”

Inguill
ignor
ed
the Spaniard and
spoke directly to Minco
.
“Taipi
must have
used the ancient scrolls
and scriptures
to open a doorway
from the underworld to here. It
i
s
the power of Supay
’
s magic that
keeps
the dead moving
and it is
that power which we need to stop
this
.
” She paused for a moment, perhaps visualising her plan of action
before continuing. “
If we can close the
doorway
,
all
of
the dead should go back to
being
just that.”

“
If
we
are
somehow
able to get to Huacas,” Minco asked
,
“
h
ow do
we close this doorway
?”

“If I remem
ber the old scrolls well enough
...”
Inguill grabbed
a stick and drew an image of
the small
effigy
of Supay on the sandy floor. “This is the key
to the plan:
i
f we can
somehow
get inside
the pyramid and destroy this statue
,
this is
the source of Supay’s connection from
the
Ukhu Pacha to
the
Hanan Pacha, from the underworld
up
to the surface world
.
”
S
he translated
those words
for
Pizarro
, “that
should
break the connection and
t
he undead
should
cease to be a threat.
”

“I don’t like
the sound of
all these
‘
should
s
’
,”
Pizarro
interrupted unhappily,
“How confident are you that this will kill them?”

“Very confident
,”
said Inguill.
“I
will
admit
that more than a year has passed since
I read the scripts
for myself,
but
I can tell you this-
I have not forgotten
the
story
of Supay and his
un
dead army
.
”

“Well,” Minco
said as he
gently
took hold of her hand,
“
our options being limited as they are,
I think we
have little choice
.”
He met
Pizarro
’s gaze steadily, gauging the man’s reaction. “We must go to Huacas.”

“Maybe
you
’re
right, Minco,”
Pizarro
said
, though he addressed them both. He
looked
outside at
t
he swarming
undead,
and
saw
a few of
them milling
by the
large carts full of his
gold
.
Of course, they
had no interest in
his
treasure.