Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (37 page)

“Hurry up,
please Inguill,
we need to get moving,
” Minco had lost his patience as he peered out of the doorway, half expecting
to see
more
of the Spaniards
troops
come
rush
ing towards them
at any time.

“I’m coming,” she said as s
he joined him at the opening. “I’m ready
now
, l
et’s go.”

There was no time to take things slowly
, they had to move quickly
,
and they
needed to get
the hell
out of the compound
.
Minco and Inguill raced down the
stone
staircase two or three steps at a time and before
long,
they
were
back
at the
wooden
doorway to the kitchens.

Gently p
ushing the door open Minco saw that the kitchen girls were gone, just
as
he had told them
to do
. He carefully opened the door to the outside to ensure it was clear before they
quickly
made their way across the plush
green
grounds.

After ten minutes of racing through the
jungle,
the wounds on Minco start
ed
to take their toll.
He was losing far too much blood to keep up that pace.

“We need to stop for a minute,” he said as he rested
up
against a tree. “Just for a minute, please.” He tore a couple o
f strips from his tunic and began to make
a couple of makeshift bandages.
The blood flow would not stop but i
t
also
soon became clear to him that Inguill
had
no care for
him or
his wounds.
She seemed to be
far more interested in something else.

“What was that you picked up
back at the house,
my love
?”
Minco said
,
as he
worryingly
looked down at the items she
kept
tightly held in her arms.

“
Pizarro
didn’t tell you the whole truth
, Minco
,” she smiled
at him
when she replied. “He didn’t keep me just so that he could trap
you;
he also needed my knowledge
of the ancient scripts
. He wanted me to do something for him.” Her hand went into the bag
and Minco almost fainted
as she pulled out
a few
pieces of
the
little
golden
statue, the broken statue of Supay.

“What the hell!” Minco pulled himself away at the sight
that was
now
before him. “What
in the Gods name
are you doing with that thing?”

“He wanted to know if the undead
army
could
somehow
be controlled,” she carried on talking as she
gently
stroked the
golden
statue. “He
was in awe of their power so he
stole
the effigy
away
from Huacas when our backs were
turned;
he also took
all of
Taipi’s prayers.
” She pointed down to the old parchments she had laid down beside her. “
He asked me to study them
again and try and work out
what the High Priest had done wrong.”

“Have
you
gone
mad?” he screamed. “Have
you not learn
t
anything from what happened
to us
before? You can’t control them,
you more than anyone should know that
nobody
bloody
can!”

“No, you don’t understand
me
,” she
still
wore a huge smil
e. “He is not what you think
, he is not evil
. S
ince studying these items
,
I now know S
upay just
wants to help me,
he wants to help
us
all
. I
f I can open the doorway again
then
he will do
whatever
I ask
, he has promised me that
.
” Her voice echoed with
a wondrous
joy. “
Please just t
hink about it
,
Minco, we can rid our lands of
all
of
the Spaniards
forever
and rule the empire as it should be
.
And I know that
Supay will help us
do just that.”

Minco watched with utter disbelief as she just sat there and smiled at the smashed up effigy. She had been touched by the power of Supay
back at the pyramid in Huacas
before the
evil
bond was broken. It seemed that somehow
, even now, he could still speak to her
.

“Please will you help me, Minco,” she said without moving her eyes
anyway
towards him. “
Just t
rust me my darling. Help me to open
up
the doorway
once
again
, it’ll be worth it, I promise
.”

Minco knew that he could never let that evil escape
from
the depths of
hell
again
.
He also felt the blood pouring out from the wound in his
belly;
no matter what he
tried,
he could not stop its flow and knew that his time was limited.

As the
tear
s
formed
deep
in his eyes
, h
is hand
slowly
went down to his side and he
unclipped the
heavy
truncheon from his
belt.
She did not see him
approach;
her mind was still lost in the magic of Supay.

This had to end
now;
he had to destroy everything that could open
up
the doorway,
whatever the cost.
And it was not just the statue this time.

Before he
acted,
he
managed to
smile
at her for the last time.

23- The Future

The present day, the museum of Cuzco

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the
middle-aged
female
curator was
impatiently
calling everyone
over
,
to get
right
around the glass case
she held so dear
. “Here is
our newest exhibit,
the pride of our collection. It is truly
one of the wonders from the past age of the Incans.”

They all peered at the broken objects inside, trying to work out just what it was.

“This was recen
tly uncovered near an old estate house
, it was buried deep undergrou
nd until an excavation found
this and various other items,” her voice was alive with excitement. “We have
of course
previously found many writings, drawings and painting
s
about this God
,
but until now we have never found a
single
statue,
not
even one
that was
as
badly
damaged as this.”

As they all looked again
at the remains
,
she then pointed over to a huge painting
that was on t
he
adjacent
wall. “This
shows what the statue would look like if it was complete.” All the visitors looked up and saw him in all his
golden
splendour. They all looked at the image of Supay
, the God of the Underworld
.

“Why are there no other statues?” one
in
the group asked. “Ever
y other God had hundreds of them made
, they can be found all over South America.”

“No one really knows,” she replied, happy that someone else was taking an interest in her work. “Maybe he fell out of favour
somehow
and all of his effigies were destroyed.
However
,
I doubt
that
we will ever find
out
the
true
answer.
”

She smiled at the busy group and led them away from the case. “And over here we have several other things that we found at the site. These include some weapons and the bodies of two people, one male and one female.”

*****

They waited until well into the night
, until well
after the
three
old and fat rent-a-cops
had done their feeble excuse of a wa
lk through. With great
care,
the two thieves
silently
made their way through the floors of the museum until
they
reached the new display,
the
one that
held
Supays statue.

“Hurry up!” the first man said to the other who was using his
glasscutter
to get through the case. “
We’ve got to get out of here soon,
” his eyes peered out into the darkness. “Y
ou
must
know what the authorities will do to us if the
y
catch us stealing artefacts.”

“Be quiet
you fool
,” he snarled back. “The money that they’re paying us is more than worth the risk.” He then gently removed the cut away glass and was able to get his hands inside
the case
. With great
care,
he took out the four broken pieces and placed them in
side
his cloth bag.

“Okay
,
it’s done,” he said with his smile visible even in the dark. “You can stop your
damn
worrying now, come on let’s get
the hell
out of here.”

Sneaking past the guards who were now playing cards in their room
,
they made their way out of the museum and onto the dark streets of Cuzco.

*****

It was almost dawn by the time they got to their destination, as they banged on the heavy door the sun was starting to peek over the rooftops.

“Are you sure about this?”
The nervous younger man asked the other. “What can these people want with it?”

“I don’t care,” he said. “For what they are paying us
for this job
they can do whatever the
y
damn want.” He then smacked his fist again o
n
the wooden door. “Stupid priest
s
must
be bloody praying or something.”

He loo
ked up at the plaque
above the door.
The old and faded sign
was written
in the ancient language-

The Temple of Inti, The Sun God.

At
last,
the door creaked open and a single
,
brown robbed man
recognised them and
beckoned them inside. They were then led
down a passageway i
nto a large room where another half dozen of the priests were waiting.

“Where’s my money?” the thief shouted as he held the bag out in front. “I have
got
your goods
, but where is my finder’s fee?
”

One of the
other
priests came forward, he was dressed differently from the others,
and his
robe w
as
made from
golden
silk
. “It is here but
please,
let me see the statue first,”
he said as he pointed towards a large table at the far end of the room.

After a few grunts of
disgust,
t
he bag was emptied out onto the stone slab table and the four pieces of the statue came into view for all.

“Magnificent, absolutely magnificent,” the High Priest sa
id as he closely examined the pieces before
clapping his hands together. Another of the priests brought over a silver
platter, which
contained a bottle of chicha, three glasses and four large ingots of gold.

“Here is your reward,
just as I promised you,
” the High Priest beckoned the two thieves closer. “
Now will you p
lease join me in a drink to celebrate the statue
coming home at last?
”

Both the thieves smiled, not at the offer of the drink but the sight of the pure gold
bars
before them. They imagined the
ir
future;
they could live well for many months with such
newfound
riches. In their
excitement,
they took a full glass each and toasted to their good fortune.

Within a few
seconds,
both of them were lying on the floor holding their stomachs in
a deep and
burning pain. In between their screams of
pain,
they cursed the priests and promised
they would take
their revenge.

“Tie them up,” the High Priest shouted. “Get them over to the altar.” He was already carefully trying to put the broken pieces of the statue back together as another of his
order was placing some parchments out beside him.

“We need to hurry
up my friends
,” he shouted again
to the other priests. “The spell must be completed
just as they die, they shall be the first.”

All around
him,
his fellow priests were frantically following his orders. He looked around with pride
, his arms now held out wide
.

“
Soon the Ukhu Pac
ha will
return and at
long
la
st
,
the Time of the Priests will
be here.
”

The End

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Also by John McCuaig