Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (12 page)

The stench filled his nostrils and his stomach rolled as more of the undead met this fate at the hands of Ayar’s men. F
ifty
well-drilled
soldiers made
light
and quick
work of this
handful of
the
undead.
Suffering
the loss of
only
two
of his own
men
,
they sent the
marauding creatures
straight
back to hell.

The soldiers of Tarapoto
looked down at their slain
foes
with
a
fierce pride, cheering and rejoicing
at their
decisive
victory. Ayar
,
however
,
not so
happy;
he
needed
to know more about these beasts. Where did they come
from
and
were
thes
e
few the only ones?

Fresh screams gave him at least one
of the
ans
wer
s
he sought, but he could also sense
by these calls
for help
that
it was mor
e than
just
a handful
of those creatures they would face
next time
. The noise was
coming from
right in
the centre
of the city, punctuated
by the
rapid
ringing of the alarm bell.
How had they gotten so deep inside the city
this quickly
? Grimly setting his jaw,
Ayar sped towards the
distress
call
with his
troop of
faithful
soldiers’
r
ight behind him.

As they turned into the
normally
well
-
kept
square
,
Ayar saw
that
the remainder of his men were already battling
against
the
deadly
horde
...and
losing.
Several hundred u
ndead were
already
sweep
ing over his men
like a
brutal
tidal wave, washing away the living as it picked up speed
and power
. T
he screams
he heard
were
coming
not only from the people of the
town
,
they were
c
oming
from
his own men
. They
were calling out to the
gods, to Ayar, to their mothers
, to
anyone who would listen- and this time, there would be no
answer.

Without
a
moment
’s
hesitation
,
Ayar joined
the battle. He and his
men
who
had
followed
him tried
in vai
n
to
stem
the
unholy
flood of the undead. It was
a hopeless task-
t
here were
simply
too many
to hold back
. F
or every two
creatures
the
men
managed to
kill
,
they
l
ost
at least
one of their own. The soldiers watched in
open-mouthed
shock
as
each of
their fallen comrades rose up again
, only to begin fighting
sh
oulder to
shoulder with this new
enemy. Every
minute
the
battle
raged on,
they were
becoming
more and more out numbered.

Ayar
knew he
had to do something
to sway the battle in their favour
and he
ha
d to do it quickly.

“The Tambos,” he shouted
at the top of his lungs
. “Everyone get back
, get
inside the Tambos! W
e’ll make
a
stand there. Move it
!
Now!
”

Even in the
face of this insurmountable force,
his men still followed his orders without question. Inch by inch
,
they made their way to the large stone
central
building
. T
hey were still
quickly
losing
their numbers
and by the time
they got to the doors
,
they were
already
down to less than
thirty. Ayar turned the golden handle but the
locks on the
heavy
door would
n
o
t budge.
It had been
locked
from the inside.

“Open this
damn
door,”
Ayar roared, banging
the handle of his axe
on the thick wood
en barrier
as his men fought in vain to keep the devouring horde back
. “Let us in now!
Do you hear me? I am
Ayar Ochi, Protector of Tarapoto
. You must
do as I say
.”

Just as he was about to give up
and face his fate
,
he heard the clicking of the
various
locks being thro
wn. The door
creaked
open and a beautiful
young girl beckoned them inside
.
Ayar
recognised her at
once;
s
he had come from a local village
less than
a
year
before
to work in the Tambo
s
. It was
socially
deemed
very
honourable work to be in servitude to the higher classes and
at the time
,
her family had been
ever
so proud.
Nevertheless,
she had bee
n watching the fighting from a
high
window
. He
r father and
elder
brother
had changed. T
hey
were part of Supay
’
s army
now
and were eating
towards the Tambo
...towards
her
.

“Thank you,” Ayar said with a little bow of his head a
s
the heavy
door
slammed shut behind
the last of
his men
. As the locks were secured, the girl
gave him a
nervous
,
little
smile in return.
For a
moment,
neither of them hear
d or acknowledged
the beasts banging
frantically
at the door.

“What
i
s your name,
girl,
”
Ayar as
ked as
he
too
fought
back
a silly, boyish
smile from his face
.

“Siza
,
” she replied. “
Siza
Occlo
, sir
.
”

“
Well,
thank you again
,
my
dear
Siza.” For
many
weeks
,
he had been meaning to ask her name. H
e had seen
her in the Tambos
before and now
he
cursed his
lack of resolve
that it had taken thi
s
day
of madness
for him to
find out. He
wished there was time to get to
know her
better
but
there was no help
for
it.
It
was too late now.
With
a
little nod
, Ayar
moved away.

While attempting to catch his breath
,
h
e took
stock
of their situation and was alarmed upon the realisation that
he was down to only
twenty-three
men
. They
and the six young women
that
lived
and worked
in
side
the Tambos
were all that remained of Tarapoto
. As he looked out
of
the
window
, Ayar saw that the number of the undead
in the courtyard was
still growing
steadily
.
The freshly slaughtered citizens
of his town
were
rising to join
with
the army of ravenous monsters.
There must
have
be
en
over a thousand of the undead bearing down upon them
by now
.

Ayar
could hear the creaking of th
e heavy door hinges as their
numbers
grew, weighing heavily ag
ainst the barrier themselves as the
y
sought out the
fresh meat
.
L
ike the rest of his men
, Ayar
knew
that
it would
only be a matter of time before they
breached the
entrance;
it was never designed to hold back such force
. W
hen that happened
,
they would have
no chance of surviving that onslaught
. He
smiled bitterly, realising
that
his dreams
of
the future
would
never come to fruition
.

Shaking himself out of his pity, Ayar motioned to
a
group of scared looking
girls
to come t
o the window
beside him
.
When they gathered around
him,
he
spoke
softly
.
“We need to get word
back
to Cuzco about what
ha
s happened here. I need you to get to the next village,
somehow
get word to the
runners. They will take
y
our message to the Ki
ng.”
He spoke of the king but in truth, Ayar wanted more than anything for the warning to get to his brother. “I need
all of you
to be brave and do exactly as I say.”

The girls were already shaking with
fear
and his
heart sank a little as he realised
that
the fate of
Cuzco
and
even
the
world as he knew it
,
lay with these nervous
young women, barely more than
children
themselves
.
Nevertheless,
he was pleasantly surprised when
the girl he knew as
Siza
bravely
stepped forward.

“What
do you need us to do, Protector?
” she
asked as she stood before him,
strong
and tall
.
Ayar could not
fight back
his smile
this time
. He’
d known
there
was something special about this girl
.