Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (21 page)

As he bent over to take another
, much-
needed
spoonful
,
he caught sight of his reflection in the water.
H
e rubbed his
hand
over
his face
, hardly believing the amount of
grey
that had appeared
i
n his hair and beard
since the last time he had seen himself.
Then,
he noticed
that a
fig
ure
had appeared
at his shoulder. As the water
slowly
stopped rippling
,
Pizarro
felt a jolt as he realised it
was one of the undead
behind him
.

Spinning around
,
he came face to face with an old
and grizzled
looking
Incan soldier, its neck torn away so
badly
that
it made no
t a single
sound
, even
as it open
ed
and closed
its mouth.

Pizarro
’s hand reached for his rapier sword but
the beast’s cold, undead hand
fell over his
wrist
like a vice
. He
tried to
pull away but it was
much
strong
er than
he was
and
the fear rushed through his blood
as
it attacked.
Its head jutted forward and
Pizarro
’s free hand clamped around its jaw just in time to stop it
s teeth
from
closing
in
on
his face.
The soldier may have been even
old
er than
Pizarro
in life,
but
in
it
s
death, its strength
easily
dwarfed his own and
it pushed the Spaniard back
wards
with ease
.
Pizarro
fell
to the ground
and the undead soldier followed him down,
teeth
inching
closer
until its stench filled
Pizarro
’s nostrils
.

The Spaniard
could hear his comrades coming
over
to his aid but
he knew they would be too late. H
e could
n
o
t hold the beast
off
any longer. As he prayed to his
own
god
for help
,
he
remembered his concealed weapon
. U
sing the last of his strength
,
he twisted his wrist
,
releasing the blade from his sleeve.
The
tightly
coiled spring
sent
the blade up
at great speed
and
through the jaw of the undead soldier
,
imbedding
itself
deep
int
o the creature’s
brain.
It showed
him
no pain. I
ts strength just slowly ebbed away until only a dead husk
was
lying on top of him.
Pizarro
didn’t even have the strength
left to push it away,
so
he wait
ed there, humiliated
until his own soldiers arrived and dragged away
the
still
corpse
.

As he rose
up
and dusted
himself
off
,
he cursed himself for straying
so far
away from the group.
In a fit of
sheer
anger
,
he kicked the dead soldier
full force
in the head
,
clearly snapping its neck. That still
wasn’t enough. He spat
i
n
to
its unmoving face.
Finally remembering himself, h
e looked around for Minco, prepared
to hear
some
new
sarcastic comment. It was
only
then
that
he saw
the Protector
standing alone
in the middle of the road
, seemingly oblivious to what had just happened.

13-
The r
eturn to Tarapoto

Minco
was stuck deep in his own little world. He
looked down all four
directions of
the
now quiet
crossroads
in turn
.
Behind him
,
the undead army were on their way
and everyone in the party
knew that they
would soon be here.
Forward
, to the north,
would take them
nearly
all the way
to
the City of
Huacas
,
but
his eyes
, and his heart,
kept being
drawn to the
left
hand path
. That
was
the road
to Tarapoto, to where his younger brother
, Ayar,
had been
stationed. He had heard
from
a couple of the
runners
that the town had been
completely
overrun
, and
all of its citizens were
devoured
by the undead
.
E
ven so
,
he needed to know
what
his brother’s fate
had been
.
Deep down
,
h
e
knew
what the
likely answer
would be
,
but he
still
had to be sure.

“
Pizarro
,” he called out
as he turned back to the main body of men
.
He waved his arm at the Spaniard.
“
Come
over
here. W
e need to talk.”

The Spaniard marched
over
to him
, cursing
continually
under his breath
.
H
e was
still trying to wipe the remains of the undead soldier’s blood from his
small
blade.
H
is h
ands were still shaking from
his earlier,
deadly
surprise.

“I
’m going to have
to leav
e you for a while,” Minco
said, not
looking at
Pizarro
. H
is eyes were on the road to Tarapoto
. “
There
i
s something I must do
first
. My men will keep you on the road
to
Huacas.
I wi
ll
return
to you
before nightfall.”

“You’re not going
bloody
anywhere,”
Pizarro
spat back
, he was not in the mood for any more of the Incan
’
s tricks
. “We
’ve got to stay together and finish
this
damn
ed
nightmare
.
Minco,
do I have to
r
emind you
where
your King
is
and your pledge to protect him
.”

The Incan
just shook his head.
“
No. But w
hat I must do I must do
alone
.
Do not be concerned for
my King or me
.
A
s I said
,
I’ll catch
up with
you soon
enough
.” He strode of
f
down the road to
ward
Tarapoto.

“Get back here now!”
Pizarro
shouted
after him
. “Minco! I’m warning you, g
et the hell back here!”

Minco did
no
t turn
around
until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Swinging
a
round with his axe at the ready to strike
,
he
cursed himself upon seeing who it was; he should
have
instantly
recognised that
tender
touch. It was
the hand of
Inguill, his lover.

“
What
in the name of the Gods
do you think
you
’re
doing,” he snapped at her
, angry with himself
for being so close to striking her down
. “
G
o back
with the others
,
please,
it
’
ll be
much
safer
.”

She offered
him one of her enchanting smiles. “My p
lace is
not with them
,
my love
, it
ha
s
always
been
, and always will be
at your side
.
”
Her
own
tone
then
quickly turned to
one of
anger. “
I know
exactly
where
you
’
re
going;
you need
to search
Tarapoto
for
the fate of
your brother.
I will go
there
with you and
before you start,
do
no
t even think about arguing with me
,
my
Minco
.
” She leaned in
up close to his face. “
You
should
know
by now
who always wins our fights.”

He
could
n
o
t help himself as he
sniggered at her
little
joke before kissing
her cheek. “Very well
, my love
.
I
do
n
o
t have the time to
argue
with you. N
ow
listen to me
:
I
just want to have a look
around
the town
,
and then
we need to
get
the hell
away
from there
.
” He took hold of her hand
and squeezed it hard
. “
P
lease
,
just
this
once
,
do as I say, when I say
it
. If you
can
do that
,
w
e can get in and out of there in
next to
no time.”

“Yes
,
my
master,” she replied
, giving him
a
mocking
little bow
, “I shall obey
your every word
.”

With a
little
shake of his head
, Minco smiled
and
turned
to
head down the
empty
road again
,
with
Inguill
right
at his heels
.
They
could still hear
Pizarro
,
shout
ing
and scream
ing
something
to
them
,
but
t
he
y both
deliberately
chose
just
to
ignore him.

*****

It took
Minco and Inguill
less than
two
hour
s
to get to the outskirts of the
famous
town.
Everything
seemed
far
too quiet
for Minco’s
own
liking. T
his
once bustling place
, one of the
finest
jewel
s
of the
great Incan
empire,
was now as still
and silent
as a graveyard. The couple
saw none of the undead
,
so they
inched their way
in
through the
large
main gates
. I
mmediately
, they
saw the remains of the
many
battles
that had taken place here
. Gallons of blood
,
pounds of flesh
and scores of bones
littered
the street
s
as
they
made
their
s
low progress towards the town square
. T
hey
had to
tiptoe
carefully
through
stinking
carrion
, wondering what had become of those they loved
.

On
their
arrival
at the centre
of the city
,
a
ll seemed quiet there too
. Then it dawned on them
that
they
could
not
see
any
human
remains
lying
around the square.
There may have been
plenty of
bloodstains
but no
t one single piece of
flesh or bone
was
to be seen
anywhere
.

Just as
Minco
was thinking
that
all
of
the undead
must
have
long
since
left
the
ci
ty
,
the
door of the Tambos
over to their left
creaked open and a
solitary
figure staggered out
. With small
, unsteady
steps
,
it
moved
across the square
to the mighty bell where it stopped and
seemed to st
and at
attention.
Even from
t
his long
distance
,
Minco could see
who it
was;
he knew
straight away that
this thing
standing
before him
had
once
been
his brother
.

I
t was
Ayar.

“Please s
tay
right
here,” Minco
said to Inguill
,
squeezing
her hand
gently
before starting
to make his way
across the square
towards him
.
“Don’t dare move from this spot.”

“Minco,” she replied
, clearly
in alarm. “That is not
your brother
out there
anymore
. All that he
ever
was ha
s
long
since
gone
. M
y love
,
that thing
standing there
is
just a shell, it’s
only a monster.”