The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (26 page)

Bartholomew replied as he slashed the throat of his attacker, "They have become too dependant on dar fancy flintlocks
,
which have almost no effect on us."

The dense cloud of smoke began to thin and Prometheus could see another legion of human soldiers running toward the battle line. He called out, "Captain Bartholomew, this may be a good opportunity to retreat."

Surrounded by soldiers, the two pirates fought feverishly back to back
,
fending off the living. The Captain yelled back, "It be too late for that. Me fear
is that
our ship may be in danger."

As the second wave of humans entered the battle, the undead became outnumbered two to one. The living used shotguns to blow the heads of the walking dead
,
sending brown and crimson brain matter over the block. The solders closed their ranks and completely encircled the zombies. Prometheus asked, "Captain, what do we do now?"

"We be fighting to da bitter end."

Patricia replied, "You were always too willing to run from a fight." She glanced at Bartholomew. "As long as I have a sword in my hand
,
this is not over."

Behind the human solders, a wave of screams and moans
,
echoed off the buildings. The Greek man glanced up to see the anti-human clan storm through the streets with spears, swords and axes. Attacking from the flanks, they caught the living off guard. Prometheus called out in excitement, "Titus' soldiers have come to our aid. The humans are the ones who are surrounded now."

A helicopter crashed on the street behind the battle
,
spreading a wall of flames down the block
,
which
barricaded
the soldiers and prevented their escape. Two of the crewman ran from the wreckage covered in flames. The anti-human clan fought
,
viciously slashing and disemboweling the living
,
with almost no regard to feeding on their bodies. Bartholomew asked Prometheus, "If Titus is dead, who be leading his people?"

The Athenian stood on the hood of a wrecked car for a better view of the battle. "I cannot tell who leads them
,
but they do fight as a well organized army."

He watched from atop the car as the battle continued. A small relief unit arrived to help the livings
,
but
the large number of undead quickly overtook them
. As the human numbers decreased, their demise accelerated. When the last soldier disappeared under a swarm of zombies, Prometheus scanned the battlefield. Both gray skinned and modern undead feasted on torsos and scattered body parts for several blocks. The few dead bodies
that
remained whole reanimated and stood up with trance-like stares. They staggered around in confusion, as Ravens and Turkey Vultures shared in the feast with the re-ans.

A tall woman, with long brown hair, a shapely athletic build and a bullet wound in her chest, stepped up Prometheus. She wore
a
military jacket over her black cocktail dress and carried a long
double-sided
axe over her shoulder. "Are you the ancient man
,
Prometheus
,
I have heard about?"

"Yes, my new sister. I am Prometheus. What is your name and from where-"

The lovely dead woman cut him off. "Yeah, from
where
do I hail? I've heard all about you. My name is Hellion and I used to live right here. I fought for your rights and all it got me was a new life in the modern day Hades."

"Gratitude on your good fight for our honor. I hope this means
,
you do not share the thoughts of my old friend Titus?"

"I not only share his thoughts, I'm keeping them alive. His tribe here," she motioned her head to the gathering undead behind her, "voted me their new leader. You see
,
I fought to get the humans to accept you and allow you to live. Now that I'm one of you, I realized the humans are the ones who no longer deserve this world."

"Perhaps
,
if we sit down and have a debate, I may be able to persuade you in a different direction with your thoughts."

"Sorry
,
Gramps, the Titus camp is no longer passive. As of
tonight,
we will take the fight to the weak humans. Do not misjudge our arrival here as an act of friendship. We came only for the chance to fight the livings. This first assault was payback for the death of Titus. There will be more to come."

* * *

In the makeshift sandbag bunker in the parking lot of the stadium, General Brown watched a video screen of the re-an battle a half mile from his position. The overhead shot
,
taken from a helicopter
,
showed the clouds of smoke loft above the streets for several blocks. As the haze dissipated, he saw a line of his troops advance on a wave of zombies, and surround them on the street. In the distance, he could hear the gunfire and explosions of the battle echo off the buildings. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his flask, unscrewed the cap and took a swig. "Finally, these civvies are starting to look like legit soldiers."

His clerk walked into the bunker with several pages of printouts in his hand. The thin young man wore glasses with duct tape holding the arms to the lenses. Brown turned to him and said
,
"What now?"

Shuffling through the papers, the civilian turned soldier replied, "If it can clear the re-an blockade in
Kansas
, our next shipment of diesel should be here late tomorrow. The civilian food and fresh water stations are reporting some of their shipments are not arriving and the missing supplies are not showing up on the black market.
And
with the latest hits to the grid, power rationing to the civilian population needs to be cut in half. The nuclear plant in
Arizona
, is providing all the power to the southwest."

"Send someone to the distribution warehouse and tell them to start handing out the water filters
,
so the civilians can take water from the rivers
,
" Brown replied and quickly took another sip from his flask. "Tell the courier to ride one of the horses. Our fuel reserves are running low. In fact, send out the word that horses are now the primary source of transportation. If someone wants to take a truck, they have to clear it through me."

"Okay." The clerk sorted to another page in the stack. "Let's see,
France
and
Germany
want to know if we can send troops of any branch of the military to help them out at their front lines. Uhmm… Oh, and
Brazil
has gone dark. It appears the re-ans greatly outnumber the living and there have been no communications transmitted out of their country for over a week."

Brown took a longer swig from his flask. "I don't know why
Europe
thinks we have excess men. We were all hit with the same EMP and all
of us
lost troops with the re-an breakout." He glanced over at the video screen and saw his second wave of soldiers move toward the front line. "This looks like we finally might start to turn the tables on these walking road kill."

At the top of the screen in an area too dark to show details, he saw a large group of people move through the streets toward the battle. He pointed to the screen and asked, "Who are these people? Is this another civilian militia?"

The picture began to shake and spin. It flashed between the buildings, the street, and the sky right before the screen went black. Brown kicked his chair across the bunker. "Aww crap! Off in the distance of the downtown skyscrapers, he saw the wall of flames from the downed copter shoot down a street. A lieutenant ran into the bunker and called out, "Sir, we just lost our last bird to an RPG."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that, Lieutenant."

From the radio on the table in front of him, came the voice of a soldie
r
in the battle. "Echo One, Echo One, this is Lima Two. We are
surrounded
on all
sides
and
we
have lost air support. Requesting immediate evac."

The large General picked up the radio mic and said, "We have no one left to come get
you,
son. Gather your men and make a run for the
Platte
River
. Re-ans are skittish about crossing water. That should give you enough of an opening to get out of there."

He waited for a response
,
but heard nothing.
Again,
he put the microphone to his mouth. "Lima Two, pull back to the river. Do you copy?" No response. "Lima Two, do you copy?"

Through the radio
speaker,
he heard the moaning sounds of a re-an
,
which caused him to throw the mic at the radio with a sidearm pitch. "Damn it!"

He went to take another swig from his flask
,
but it was empty. He turned it upside down over his mouth with only one drop falling from the rim. Annoyed, he threw the flask across the bunker, reached into a trunk filled with supplies, and pulled out a full bottle of whiskey. Spinning off the
cap,
he chugged three large gulps. When he lowered the bottle and turned toward his two men in the bunker with him, he saw them slowly step back away from him
,
with wide eyed looks of fear on their faces."

He put the bottle on the table. "What? You've seen me drink way more than that and I've had far worse tantrums than this."

The two men continued to back step toward the front entrance of the bunker. Brown yelled, "What is it?"

One of the men pointed to the General's face. Brown touched his cheek with his
fingertips
and patted his way to his upper lip. Right below his
nose,
he felt something wet and sticky. In the low light from the single bulb overhead, he saw his fingers covered in blood. As the two men ran out of the bunker, the Lieutenant called, "The General has the Omega Virus!"

Brown rubbed his palm across the bottom of his nose and saw even more blood. Wiping the blood off on his shirt, he picked up the bottle of whiskey and said, "It looks like I don't have much time left. I better finish this now."

He inverted the bottle over his mouth and poured the liquor down his throat.

* * *

With the scattered fires leftover from the battle lighting the area, Captain Bartholomew sat on a piece of wreckage from one of the downed helicopters. He pulled out a rag and wiped the blood off his sword. Around him
,
a few remaining humans tried to escape
,
but were quickly pounced on by the undead. Their screams dissipated
,
as they bounced off the rubble remains of the buildings
while
they were eaten alive.