Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (31 page)

The Spaniard
follow
ed
not more than
a few seconds behind,
whispering the command
amongst his men
that they were
to
watch the
girl
very closely
. When she began to turn
,
she was to be shot
- Minco too
if he got in their way.

19
- The Statue of Supay

The
lovers
managed to keep
well
ahead of the
others
.
A
s soon as they
entered
the main chamber
,
they saw it.

“There it is,” Minco whispered to Inguill
, “just a little bit further
now
and we’ll be there
.” 
Perched
a
top of
a
long,
black marble
altar was the
golden
statue of
Supay;
it seemed so small
, such an insignificant thing to cause so much harm. But an evil,
red glow
emanated
from its eyes
and as they approached it,
the air
around them
was
filled with devilish
,
high pitched screaming.
It seemed to come from
both
nowhere and everywhere at once, f
rom out of the darkness
,
the
High Priest
Taipi
slowly emerged.

H
is
naked,
blood
-
soaked
body moved to stand
directly
,
protectively
in front of the statue.
Minco knew t
hey would have to get through him if they were
ever to end this nightmare. There was no other option
.

Minco
gently leaned
Inguill
against a
tall
stone pillar
. “You have to w
ait here
for a moment
,” he said. “I
wi
ll kill
Taipi and we’ll be able to reach
the statue
together
.”
Inguill made no reply. Minco’s heart dropped as
he pulled up her chin to look at her
face
.
Taipi transfixed her eyes
and
his
deadly
song
and her b
ody
began gently rocking
from side to side.

“Inguill
,” he shouted
, shaking her by the shoulders. “Stay with me
.
I need you to h
old on
for
just
a little bit longer.” She
blinked rapidly and then her dark eyes found his. Fear ignited behind the dark irises and she
burst into tear
s. “I could hear him,” she cri
ed. “He was calling for me.”

Minco did
n
o
t waste an
other
single
moment. He turned and strode away
without another word an
d
march
ed right towards the leader of the
army of
Ukhu Pacha. H
e drew b
oth his axe and truncheon
but Taipi was ready
and waiting
for him
.

The eyes of the statue
had
begu
n to pulse and the High Priest seemed to
grow, to draw
power from the
little
stone effigy. Supay himself
, it seemed,
would not gladly suffer the loss of his
General.

Swinging both his weapons at once
,
Minco
aimed
for the
crown
of Taipi
’s head. However,
the
leader of the
beast
s
had become too quick, even for Minco
. I
n a flash
, the Taipi creature
ducked away from his attack and as Minco passed by
,
it
’s bony arms pushed the already off-balance human
.
The Protector flew across the floor and landed in a crumpled heap
against
the
far
wall.

Pizarro
and his men entered the
vast
chamber just in time to see Minco
hurled
across the
room
. One of the soldiers raised his musket and
took
his
aim
directly
at Taipi’s head.
Pizarro
put out a
hand
and
quickly
pushed the
man
’
s
weapon back down.

“Just wait a
little
while,” he said
,
a grin spreading across his face. “
I want to
see how this
thing
plays out.”

He
could see
that Inguill
had sunk to
he
r knees.
The infection was already beginning to claim her. S
oon
,
she would
only be another
one of the walking dead
.
Wincing,
Minco slowly
regained his footing but as he glanced
up
,
Taipi
was already rushing
towards him
again
.

The Incan
warrior
may have been winded but he
was far from beaten
just yet
. Using the wall behind him for leverage, he jumped and pushed his legs straight out, connecting with
the charging monster
and knocking it
off balance.
Before it could steady itself
, Minco swung a powerful punch at
its head. His attack was quick and strong but still
, it had little effect on Supay’s champion. Taipi levelled a heavy blow
to the
chest
of
Minco
that sent the warrior sprawling once more, clutching at his heart
. As Minco struggled to catch his breath
again
,
Taipi
wrapped the long fingers of
his only hand
tightly
around Minco’s
throat
and lifted him
high up
into the air
with ease
.

Minco coughed and spluttered,
struggling for breath and gagging when the only air he could find was rancid with t
he stench
that was
pouring from Taipi’s mouth
to hang in a miasma around him
. As the beast growled deeply
,
Minco could see
strings of
rotted meat
stuck between its teeth.
He felt his stomach lurch.

“
Get it over with,” Minco
rasped,
“I hope you choke on my flesh.”

Taipi’s head nodded forward but
s
udden
ly it
stopped
, motionless in the echoing chamber
. Minco could feel
Taipi
’s
great
strength
slowly
ebbing
away
until at last
,
he could break free from its fingers. As he pulled away
,
Taipi stumbled to
one
side
and
Minco saw
Inguill standing directly behind where the High Priest had been. He looked down and saw
that
his
own
axe was
deeply
embedded deep in
to
the back of
Taipi’s
skull.

Inguill
had saved him. Now, that she was safe,
she
crumbled
back to the ground.

“Inguill!”
he called her name in desperation
as he rushed to her side. He took her in his arms and wiped the sweat from her brow.
Her eyes opened and Minco felt blind terror for her when he saw her deep, almost black irises were beginning
to cloud over.

“The statue,” she
managed to whisper, though her voice nearly gone. “Hurry
...
please
.”

“What do I
need to
do with it?”
he asked urgently, almost impatiently as tears
now
spilled unheeded down his cheeks
.

“Smash it...” she
gave Minco one last, dazzling smile before she lost consciousness
.

Minco stood
and grasp
ed his truncheon
.
T
he
mad
sounds of
screaming
,
snarling undead made him feel exhausted. T
he beasts had broken through the
rubble and now they rushed up
the passageway
towards
the
main
chamber
. He looked
at
Pizarro
- he
was
already
lining up his men
,
their muskets
aimed
at the entrance of the chamber. Once his last order had been given,
he
too
headed for the
black
altar.

He and Minco arrived at the same time.
“Do it
!”
Pizarro
screamed at the Protector
. “
S
mash that
damn
ed thing!
”

Minco raised the short, sturdy weapon high above his head but
before he brought it back down, he
stared
right
at the Spaniard
for a moment. “My t
hanks for
your help with Taipi
back there.
”
His voiced was laced with
sarcasm. “We could have had this
all
finished by now
if you had shot the Priest
.”
The gunfire started behind them. T
he undead
army
were now in view of the soldiers.

“This isn’t the time
or the place
,”
Pizarro
snapped. But there was
still
terror in his voice.
“Just get it done,
man!”
H
is eyes glanc
ed
over to the entrance. “We can have a talk
about that later. Now
please
hurry up.
D
o it
before
your woman dies and
they get to my men.”

Minco would not forget what
t
he
Spaniard
had
done but for now
, he let
out a howl
of anger
he brought the weapon
down
upon the effigy of Supay
with all his might
.

The brittle
, golden statue
split in
half with a crack too loud to be natural.
Minco
looked up as an eerie silence settled over the chamber
.

“I think we’ve done it,”
said
Pizarro
. “The
screaming has stopped at last.”
Both men
looked
to
wards
the soldiers guarding the passageway
and as they did, t
he
y
saw
the remaining survivors
had begu
n to realise they had defeated Supay’s accursed army. They began to hoot with glee, jumpi
ng
up and down
and hugging everyone
around them. The
mass of
approaching beasts
had unceremoniously fallen dead in the middle of their charge and now lay in a heap of broken, rotten flesh.
The
danger was
finally
over
.