Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (28 page)

Once
their feet touched down on
the deserted street
,
Minco and his men
wasted no time. T
hey
moved stealthily
from corner to corner
until
t
he
y
came across
a row of
long
since
deserted
market stalls.
As Minco made his way towards
them,
he almost smiled
when an idea came to him. This
was
perfect for what he had in mind.

He indicated to the stalls with a jerk of his chin.
“
Move
them
all together across the
width of the
street.
Quietly,
” he added but this afterthought had been
unnecessary
. They were already moving with more stealth than a
cat stalking a mouse
.
“I need the roadway
completely blocked before we
can
begin
.
”

Wordlessly, they obeyed, rasping breath and scrapping wood over stone
they still
kept
it
as quiet as possible.
T
hey dragged the hea
vy carts
into place
.
As they did,
Minco pulled the contents of
f
one of the stalls and
evenly
laid it out
at the base of
the
rapidly
growing line. B
undles of old
,
and
very
dried out maize
began to
the carts that
form
ed
a
formidable barrier
,
completely blocking the roadway
. Satisfied
with what had been done,
Minco put the last
, most important
part of the plan in
to
action.

He knelt
by the stalls
and
rummaged in his pack. A
fter
r
emoving two
small
pieces of flint from his bag
,
he
struck the
m
together over and over
again
until the
tiny shower of sparks had the
desired
effect. The
bone-dry
plants
ignited
and
orange
flames quickly spread along the whole line
, feeding the dry wood of the stalls
above them.
Soon, the entire line was wildly a
blaze
and
thick, dark
smoke billowed
up, ascending
high above the
empty
houses.

“Th
ere, th
at
ought to do it
,” Minco
said with a wry smile.
“
Come, there’s more work to be done.
” However
, Minco
knew
deep down
that it
would
take more than just a
single
little
fire to
draw the attention of
all the beasts.
And he also knew that was something he must do.

*****

Inguill and
Pizarro
waited
silently
in their hiding place
, watching
as
a
thick, black
tower of
smoke
billowed into the air
at the far
side of the city.
The
guard
’
s
attention was also
drawn
away from their post
. Soon
, a chorus of
groans and grunts sounded from
somewhere
deep
inside
the city. Following what the humans could only guess was some kind of orders,
half of the undead soldiers left their position at the gates
to
go and
answer the call
.

Inguill hissed,
“
No! W
e need
all
of
them to go.
”
She looked anguished
. “If any are left
to guard the gate,
they
wil
l
only
call the others right back. We w
ould find ourselves
right
back where we started.”

Pizarro
could only shake his head in frustration. “
Well,
I hope
that
y
our man
has some sort of
fall-back plan. I think it would be unwise for us to sit and wait
here all day.”

Inguill
finally
lost her patience
with the old soldier
.
He’d been insolent, impatient and offered nothing more than
hindrances
and snide remarks since she met him
. “
Have some respect,
Spaniard
,
we deserve it,
” she spat
. “If we had not included you in our plan, you’d be undead by now
or merely torn to pieces
.”

Pizarro
’s face twisted into a mask of anger bordering on hatred. He brought
his face
to
barely
an inch from hers
. “And I’ll tell you that y
ou don’t deserve
my
respect. You
’re all a bunch of savages who take their orders from a woman
,”
he said, voice filled with distain
as he growled his last words
. “You should not
even
be
here.”

She
huffed a mocking little breath back at him, shaking her head
as if in pity
. “
I
actually
feel
a little bit
sorry for you
, Spaniard
.
You
a
re nothing but a
lonely
and
bitter old man. If you cared for anything other than
yourself and
our
gold
,
you might be a
little
happier.”

“Just l
eave me
the hell
alone,
woman,
” he shouted back. “You just worry about Minco and
him
getting
us
into the city.
This is your last warning, priestess
,
just
leave me alone
or else
.”
Pizarro
swallowed hard. He wanted to strike her but knew what the remaining Incans would do to him.
His face was flushed with the effort to control his temper, but in the end, he only
sat back down and
began to
inspect
his
small blade once more.

*****

Minco did have something else planned for
both
he and his men.
He
knew the dangers
very
well
,
and
he knew that not all of his men
would make it
out
of this
alive
. But
th
ey
had no
other choice
.
He gathered his remaining
men together he
gave them the bad news.

It was time to face the undead.

The
soldiers of Supay were
already
swarming through the streets
and
Minco could only hope
that
their numbers had
been
thinned out
by the search
. Even i
f they could
only
defeat a few
of
them that
would
hopefully
bring the rest of the
undead in the city
to the battle
. Tha
t would
of course
mean the end of him
but it would
give
Inguill and
the others a chance to get to the pyramid.

“
T
his is it
,” he said to the men h
uddled at a corner
. He continually scanned
in all directions
for
any
signs of movement
. “We need to take the fight to
them
.”
Minco drew
his axe
and truncheon
. “
We
’
ll f
in
d
a
small group of the beasts, destroy them
quickly
,
and
move on
to the next.
If we can do this, the numbers will be manageabl
e while drawing their attention away from the
others.
We
must
give the
m the
time to
get inside and
destroy the statue.” Minco
strode
off down the street
, followed by the last of his soldiers, both Incan and Spanish
now following his words
.

It
wasn’t
too
long
before they found
the first
of their
targets. Two undead soldiers
were
w
alking
right
towards
them;
they groaned like
living, hungry stomachs
and attacked
at speed
.

Minco
ordered the Spaniards
to fire
the muskets they carried. H
e wanted the rest of the
horde to hear
their power
was here
. The two monsters
quickly
fell under the volley of
hot
lead, their
rotting
heads blown apart as
practically
every shot found
its
mark
.
Minco rallied his men with a fierce,
bloodthirsty
snarl. It felt good to be on the attack for once. All this running, no matter how it ended, was
finally
over.
“This way,
men
,
” Minco shouted
. He
was already darting
away
down the street to his left. “
K
eep moving!”

*****

Inguill heard the shots and nearly jumped out her skin.
All kinds of thoughts and notions raced through her mind, she tried to believe that he was fine but could
n
o
t help
but
to fear the worst.
She looked around at her
also worried
companions, she needed
to find
some comfort but of course knew that
Pizarro
woul
d not be the one to help
her
. He was
however
the first to
speak.

“Well
,
I’ll be damned,”
Pizarro
said
as he peered through the foliage
at
the gates
. “It’s working. T
he la
st of the guards are leaving
too
.
” He grinned fiercely at Inguill and she could not help but share his
newfound
excitement.
“
He’s
only gone and
done i
t,
”
Pizarro
continued. He took Inguill’s elbow a
nd began leading her forward. “
W
e need to
move, we need to take this chance.
”