Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (25 page)

The group
continued
at its brisk
pace
for the next
half hour and as they got over a slight
ly raised
ridge in the path
,
they
could finally look down and see
the
famous
bridge of
Amuchanto. Inguill gasped and everyone could see that t
he
re
was one
big
problem
with their
plan;
the bridge
was no longer there.

Minco
did
n
o
t falter
at this sight
. H
e
kept on
running;
he
just
needed to get
down
there
to have
a closer look. As they arrived
in the
large
clearing
,
the remains of a few dozen bodies encircled the point where the
bridge had once been. They’d all been eaten
down
to the bone
. The Protector
could see
that
the heavy ropes that
had
once
held
the bridge
aloft
had been cut
through
.
Across
the large gap
, Minco
saw the wooden
,
slat bridge
draped
down
over
the
opposite
face of the
ravine.

“What the hell happened here?” Almargo shouted as he
too
arrived at the scene.
He screamed
right
at the Incan
,
“Where’s the bloody bridge
you promised us?
”

Pizarro
stepped forward and on survey
ing the evidence
,
he turned to
Almargo
. “
S
ome of the locals must have cut it down
, I’d guess
to
stop the advance of the undead from Huacas
.
”
Brow furrowed, h
e bent down to examine the
human
remains.
“
But it l
ooks like
some
of the beasts
made it across before they could bring it
down.”

Everyone
in the group
looked around, desperate for
a solution to
this situation. The
deep
ravine lay
to their left,
massive
cliff faces
were
to the right and the same
,
huge wall of
impassable rock lay
fifty yards ahead.
Turning back was no option
either.
Several
hundred of the undead
soldiers
were only minutes behind them on the path.

“Find me something
,
my friend,”
Pizarro
whispered
to Almargo. “I need you to f
ind us a way out of here.” This time
,
the old soldier
obeyed
him at once
,
moving off
without
either
hesitation or question.

Pizarro
’s gaze found the beautiful
Inguill
as she
gently
wrap
ped
her arms around her lover
,
and he could not help but wonder what his life might have been like if someone had loved him
like that
.

16
- Crossing
the
River

Soon enough,
and just as they all expected,
they arrived
.
Pizarro
, Minco and
Inguill, along with the rest of their party could hear the creatures
coming
well
before they
saw
them
.
T
here must have been
close to
a t
housand of the undead
,
charging
en-masse
down the
thin
path
towards
the ridge
like wildfire
,
and they were
almost upon them.
Minco knew
by now that
t
hey could smell that their prey was
very
close.
The
last of the survivors of
Cuzco
were
trapped.
They
had
nowhere
left
to go.

The ravine
itself
may have
only
been
about fif
ty feet wide but it was
always at least
a couple
hundred feet deep
, and then there was the raging river below
. With no bridge
left
,
there seemed no way across
and
in turn
,
no ch
ance
of getting past
the advancing horde
.

“Over there,” Almargo shouted
,
pointing
far
to his
right;
he pulled his sword out and ran in that d
irection. “That’ll do it
. Come on
...move
!” No one knew
but
Pizarro
knew
what he was shouting about.

“You wily old fox,” he muttered
away
to himself. “I alwa
ys knew
that
I could rely on you
,
my
friend.”
Pizarro
saw
exactly
where Almargo was pointing and running
to
,
and
broke into a
little
smile
.
H
e looked up and saw that the tree
his man had picked
would
definitely
be
long enough to breach the gap. They just needed to cut it down
,
and
be done
with it
quickly.

“Let’s go! U
se you axes
,
Minco, get your men to cut
it right
here,” Almargo shouted
,
using his rapier to mark a semi-circle in the thick
,
dark
bark. “
Cut
it
deep enough and this thing will topple right over to the other side.
And tell them I need them to
cut
exactly
where I’ve marked.”

Minco did
n
o
t need
to be asked twice. H
e set a half dozen men
straight to work on
felling
the mighty tree. In the meantime
,
Pizarro
g
ot the rest of the soldiers
together as he
at
tempted to get together some kind of defensive formation. It would be
weak at best, w
ith only twenty men
left;
the
line was
going to be
too thinly spread out to be
very
e
ffective.
Pizarro
knew it would
n
o
t last
for
more than a few seconds before they were overrun
,
and
of course, then
devoured
alive
. His
uncertain
glance
at
Minco
relayed their urgency better than
any
words could convey
.

“Faster...
faster!”
the Protector
shouted at his men. “Keep going
, we need to keep going
!”
The swings of the axes became
almost
a blur as th
e men swung with all their strength
and speed
, biting
deep
er and deeper
into the
thick
trunk of the
ancient
tree. Even the
axe
men could hear the
impending
arrival of the undead above the
hefty
thumps into the
hard
wood.

“Don’t look
at them,” Minco shouted
at
his men
, to prevent
their concentration
from
waver
ing from the task in hand
. “K
eep your eyes on the tree
alone
. We need
get
it
down
now!”
Minco felt compelled to glance backwards every few moments to gauge the progress of the beast’s approach
along the path
way
.

A cold
shiver
raced
up his spine.
Although they were still a fair way off,
it was clear
even in the narrow pathway
they numbered
almost a hundred across
,
a number far too vast for their small party to handle.

Minco
spun back and
saw that
although
the cuts were getting deeper
,
the tree was never going to
fall in time.
The
flood of the
undead
would wash over them
well
before they could finish.
He
needed
somehow
to help it along
.
Tapping the
shoulders of the
last three men
left
guarding the
cutters;
Minco
ordered
them to follow him
as
he started to scale the tall and mighty tree.

“We need to get
right
to the
very
top,” he shouted to
the men behind him
,
ignoring
the
slapping branches and scraping bark as he
climb
ed in haste. “Come on, w
e’ve got to help it topple.”

*****

Pizarro
walked along the line
, telling
his men
they had
to hold steady, come what may
, anything he could think off to keep them in place. He also let them know a
nyone who
tried to ru
n
away
would feel the steel of his
own
blade
long before the teeth of the beasts
.
Their fear was a palpable thing
as they watched the
inevitable approach
of death
,
the might of
Supay
’s army
was rushing
towards them. He
glanced back
to check
on
the
progress of the
felling of the tree
and
saw Minco and some of his men crawling up its branches
,
and
quickly
disappearing into the
deep
,
green
leaves
. The Spaniard angrily spat on the ground.

“Coward,” he muttered under his breath
in disgust
. “
So much for all those
speeches about
you
saving your King,” he continued. “First chance you get
,
you go and
run
away
,
hid
ing
like a rat.” He turned
his
back in anger
. He was prepared to die like a man
with his sword in his hand
,
not
cowering in fear
like Minco.

In a matter of seconds
,
Pizarro
’s temper lessened as
it dawned on him that
s
omething was not
as it seemed
.
Turning
around
once more
,
he looked
up
at the tree again
. H
e had known Minco long enough
that
he would have bet his
own
life
on this Incan
not
being
a coward. Once h
e heard the
mighty tree crack
,
he
realised
just
what the Incans had been
up to. This time
, a smile appeared on
Pizarro
’s
lips as the tree let out another loud crack
and
at last
started to move
.

Minco and his men were near the top
now
and working their way along
one
side
of the
thick
branches
that pointed
towards the ravine.
T
heir extra weight might just be enough to tip the balance
in time
.

“This way,
now,
all of you
!
C
ome on,
move
it
!” he yell
ed to the men before him
as he pointed away from the horde
. “
We can f
orget
about holding
the line now-
t
he tree is about to fall! W
e can get across
!
”
Without hesitating, t
hey
turned and ran towards the others.
Even so,
Pizarro
knew i
t
was going to be
a
narrow escape
.

One
final
,
thunderous
crack sent the
tree
on its way,
falling across the ravine. It was
n
ot
however
landing
as
straight as
they
planned
. Instead, it had fallen
at a slightly
acute angle,
one
that would take them
even
closer to the
oncoming
beasts.
Pizarro
hear
d a scream from one of the men
in the branches
.
A
s the tree had started to fall
,
he
’d
attempted to jump back down to the side where he
had started.
Instead
, a
ll he managed
was
to
fall to his death,
down
into the
ravine to be swallowed
completely
by the river
.

T
he tree had only just made it
s landing, due to the
acute
angle;
barely
two
feet
of it
had made it
to
land on
the far side.
As the dust settled
,
Minco and his
remaining
two men appeared from
out of
the
tangle of
branches and leaves. T
hey
at least,
had made it across
in one piece
.
Waving, and shouting encouragements,
they called
for
the others to join them.