Legion of the Undead

by Michael Whitehead

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  When Otho made his move, Vitus saw it all but was powerless to stop it. Unarmed and outnumbered as he was, he was unable to do anything but watch from the back of the chamber.

  Unlikely as it was that he could have done anything to alter events, he still looked back on it all with a little shame at his helplessness.

  Weapons had been banned from the senate house since the ancient times of the republic. Now, only the Praetorian guard had blades in this place. It was all the advantage they needed against the senators on the benches.

  Though their numbers were superior to the guards around the walls, they were not fighters. Many were old and infirm, while others had never seen more than nominal military service.

  The result was that, when Otho received a nod from one of his men, and moved against the emperor, no-one moved to stop him.

  Vitus saw the door at the back of the chamber open and a single man stepped in. He caught Otho’s eye and nodded. Otho nodded back and the guards around the chamber shifted from attention and became ready for action.

  Vespasian was sitting, listening to an ancient senator who Vitus hadn’t previously heard speak. The man’s head shook as he spoke and his voice was thin and reedy. Vespasian’s interest in the man was undivided, and so he didn’t react until he felt Otho step up behind him and press a hard steel blade to his throat.

  The senator did not seem to realise what was happening for some time because he continued with his speech until the man next to him pulled on his arm to distract him from what he was saying.

  The rest of the house seemed to hold its breath, as if the slightest movement might cause the prefect to draw the blade across the Emperor's throat.

  Otho looked around the chamber for a few seconds with an expression of complete calm on his face. He scanned the rows of toga clad men and a faint smile spread across his lips.

  The assembled ranks bristled, and Vitus saw the impotent anger of a crowd watching events play out in front of them, helpless to intervene.

  Otho nodded to one of the guards standing next to a door at the back of the chamber. He opened the door and motioned to someone outside.

  After a few seconds, two guards dragged a dishevelled looking woman into the center of the chamber. She was covered in blood from a wound on her shoulder and had a shocked look of vacuity on her face. Vitus was almost sure she had no idea where she was, or before whom she stood.

  One of the older senators, sat towards the back of the benches, stood up and shouted.

  “This is an outrage!” At the top of his voice, but was silenced when a guard stepped up behind him and clubbed him across the back of the neck.

  The old man fell to his knees. His fellow senators helped him up off the floor and the house erupted into a cacophony of angry shouting.

  Vitus noticed that not one of them made any attempt to move out of their place at the benches and approach Otho. These were men used to the battle of words over the battle of swords. His hand itched to have a weapon to hold.

  Otho waited calmly for the tumult to end before he continued in a calm voice.

  “Gentlemen, I think the time for you to talk is over. Now is the time for you all to listen.”

  Vespasian sat with the blade held tight to his throat and a look of despair on his face. No emperor takes power without the knowledge that his life has become so much more dangerous because of the title.

  Do any of them truly conceive of the day that one of their trusted allies turns on them and takes that life away?

  “The woman you see before you has been bitten by the creatures we are discussing. I’ve brought her here to give you a quick demonstration. You see, in order for my words to have the desired effect, I will need you to truly believe what I have to say.

  “Anyone bitten by the dead is just waiting to die themselves and become one of them in turn. I have no time to sit here and wait for her to die, so I have a better idea.”

  He nodded to one of the guards who, without hesitation, drew his blade across the woman's throat. The flood of crimson that soaked her dress and the marble of the chamber's floor was shocking. It flowed from her like water over a fall as the guard pulled her head back, opening the wound.

  The senators were shocked into utter silence. They sat wide eyed as children being told a story by a teacher.

  Otho continued, “I am not a man who is easily surprised. Though I have to admit to being completely shocked when I first heard about our new friends from beyond the grave. Indeed, it left me with a quandary.” He looked around the chamber and smiled amiably. He could easily be a philosopher, discussing the Greek schools, rather than a man with his blade to the throat of the emperor.

  “You see, I was already in the middle of my plan to take power from the man at the end of my blade, when I realised that my actions were now going to pale into insignificance to news of the threat in Germania when it became common knowledge.”

  There was a shuffling and murmuring from the assembled ranks before the prefect and he waited for it to die away before he continued.

  “It is a fact that a man who is well prepared for an oncoming disaster can find himself in a powerful position when the disaster has passed. A man who hoards food before a famine can sell that food for a much greater price than he paid for it. It’s something I’m sure most of you in this room have taken advantage of in some form or other. So I found myself pondering how I could do the so myself.”

  The massed senators could not draw their eyes from the body of the dead woman on the floor, but Otho continued as if he didn’t even remember she was there. Then the body began to twitch and her eyes sprang open.

  The men on the front two rows of benches almost knocked the men behind them over in a bid to get as far away from the now animated corpse as possible. Vitus heard a few of them actually scream. He readied himself for flight.

  If the crowd became a crush as it had in Mutina he had no plans to be caught up in the tumult. The helpless feeling of suffocation he had felt in the fight to get out of the city still haunted his dreams.

  The two guards were ready for her and each grabbed one of her arms, one of them also took hold of a handful of hair and used it to control her head.

  She thrashed at them, and for a second Vitus thought she might overpower them both. They were a match for her and eventually she seemed to calm down into a simmering readiness.

  Otho nodded to the guards at the back who, in unison, banged the hilts of their spears against the marble floor shocking the crowd to silence. He then spoke in a soothing voice that, none the less, carried around the chamber to the senators.

  “My friends, please. As you see, there is nothing to worry about. My men have the situation under control.”

  He waited while some of the men took their places on the benches. Others stood on the steps but no-one returned to the first two rows.

  “So, there you have it. You can all see with your own eyes that everything our great Caesar has told us is true. The reports from Germania are accurate and Mutina is indeed, in ashes.”

  As he said this he looked down to where he held the knife to Vespasian's throat and made a bowing gesture, as if to honour the man whose life he threatened. With this done he turned to the senators and looked serious.

  “I have ancestors who fought for Rome for many generations. One of my father’s fathers fought for Sulla against Marius. Another fought for Julius Caesar when he overcame Pompey. Rome does like a good civil war. We do like to kill each other, don't we?”

  He paused again, as if expecting the massed ranks of senators to laugh. Vitus was shocked to hear that one or two were forthcoming.

  “So, I decided to manufacture some civil unrest of my own. With the right amount of planning, the mob in Rome can be very easily whipped up into a potent force of change, or so I assumed.

  “With enough trouble on the streets, I thought, the only man they could turn to would be the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard and that would be
my opportunity.

  “I have to admit that I was unprepared for the apathy with which my plan was met. I assumed that when I had my men started to kidnap people off the streets, that the resulting uproar would be huge. Even if that failed, I thought, the curfew and loss of liberty would tip the scales and cause riots in the streets.

  “The mob, my friends, is much harder to manipulate than I ever would have imagined.” Otho stopped and feigned a thoughtful demeanour.

  “So fortune seemed to have deserted me. Shall I start to leave those people back on the streets as corpses, I wondered.” As he said this, he tilted his head to one side as if in contemplation. If nothing else, this villain was certainly an entertainer.

  “I was so close to doing just that. Then, at the last moment, word reached me of the unbelievable situation in Germania. Not only that but that one of the creatures in question was on a transport and heading in my direction, so that I could see for myself the threat to the Empire.

  “One of my many eyes in the provinces had seen a danger to our way of life and was doing everything in his power to aid us in tackling the threat. An honourable and trusted friend of Rome was delivering the very weapon I needed, straight into my hands.

  “It’s strange how the gods seems seem to throw opportunity at us when we least deserve it, don’t you think?”

  Otho asked this question directly to Vespasian with a snarl. He took a second to look into the Emperor's eyes by wrenching his head back using a handful of the band of hair that wreathed Vespasian’s bald crown, and at the same time exposing more of his throat to the blade.

  “Here I was, trying with all my heart to fathom a way to bring you, our divine leader, down and all the time the real gods were on my side. How does it make you feel? You, a Caesar, supposedly divine, and the real gods have sent a plague just to bring you to your knees. It has to hurt.”

  Vitus was watching the guards around the doors. They were as fascinated and mesmerised by the speech Otho was giving as the men on the benches. Almost none of their attention was focused on what was happening among the senators.

  He started to move around the wall, closer to the place on the steps where Domitius had ended up standing when the senators had rushed back from the Risen. He watched the guards as he did and didn't seem to have any of their attention.

  He had to get the praetor out, if he could. Domitius was a good man, and Vitus liked him. He could escape the hall and run but he had no intention of leaving Domitius unless he was forced to.

  Otho was continuing his speech as Vitus moved around the wall.

  “I suppose you are wondering why I am doing this and what I intend to do next?” He spoke to the massed ranks of senators, who sat or stood staring at him in shock and disgust.

  “You’re insane, Otho!” One of the senators shouted at him. Otho smiled.

  “Maybe. I have considered the idea before today. Who am I to judge my own sanity though? Still, I can’t say the idea hasn’t crossed my mind.”

  He looked around the room slowly, taking in the gaze of as many of the senators as he could.

  “I have been here now for some time, holding a knife to the throat of your Emperor. I have threatened the very head of our Empire and not one of you has dared to stand up and challenge me.

  “How weak we have become. How sickened by our own superiority we are, that we allow our very highest order to become watered down with the blood of the very people we once conquered.

  “I see, cowering before me, Gauls and Spaniards, Greeks and Italians. I struggle to see the Roman blood among you anymore.

  “I, a true Roman, whose ancestors have fought for Rome for generations am forced into servitude for the people my fathers spilled blood to fight. It will not continue. There is to be a reckoning. I am going to teach the people of Rome what it means to truly be Roman. I am going to release this new plague on the city.”

  There was an immediate uproar from the ranks of senators. Otho shouted over them.

  “Now you find a voice? Now that it is your own lives at stake. You make me sick.

  “I repeat myself. I will unleash this plague on our city. Not in the numbers I could, I don't think that will be necessary. No, I will release a small number of the beasts, and I will let them run free for three days. This will give the people enough time to see the horror for themselves.

  “It is my sincere hope that the people will be strong enough to clean the streets for themselves, to stand up and destroy this threat.

  “That would be a sight to behold and would fill my heart with pride. If they don't do so, my men will do the job for them.

  “After the three days, when the streets are free of the beasts, I will give the city a further three days. In that time I will strike a bargain with the people of Rome.”

  Otho paused, surveyed his captive audience and smiled a sardonic smile.

  “I will give our people three days to drive every non-Roman senator from the city of Rome.”

  There was immediate tumult. Some senators shouted insults and curses at Otho, while others looked around the chambers, weighing up those that would be affected by this ruling.

  “Three days, gentlemen. Three days to clean this house of the curse that has befallen it. Every senator whose father’s father was not born in Rome will be posted on a list in the Forum and elsewhere about the city. If your name appears on that list then you will be marked.

  “I will give the people free reign. They may drive you from the gates or hang you from the nearest tree, I care not. I believe our people can be inventive when times call for such things.

  If after three days, one of you is still alive in the city, I will unleash the full power of my Risen army on the city and the people will know why. They will know it is because you, their superiors and leaders, hid and ran from your duty to protect them.”

  He stopped again to drink in the shock and anger in the room.

  “You have a duty now, gentlemen. You have one hour to go from this place and warn the people of Rome of the danger they are to face. The gates will remain closed, the people of Rome must face their dangers with brave hearts.

  “Use the time well, gentlemen. Prove yourselves worthy of the high station Rome has granted you. Do what is right for the city that has treated you so well.

  Finally, I say to the true Romans among you. After this trial is over, after the vermin have been driven out and the flames have been extinguished, I will need you all to rebuild Rome in the image of our forefathers. I will be here, waiting to see who answers my call.’

  With this speech finally over, the doors at the back of the chamber were thrown open and the guards stepped out into the hallways beyond. Vitus glimpsed a window in the hall beyond and saw the dark night sky before the door was filled with rushing bodies.

  Otho signalled the two guards holding the dead woman. At the same time, he wrenched at Vespasian's hair, toppling him to the floor at her feet.

  She didn’t hesitate. She fell on him and began to tear flesh from his shoulder and back. His fine toga immediately turned dark crimson and his screams filled the chamber.

  She hacked at him with claw like hands and thrashed at his flesh with her teeth. His screams were hideous but thankfully short. He died in agony.

  Vitus was forced against the wall, as the weight of the senators turned into a scrabble to force their way out through the door. He managed to brace his back against the stone and move against the press, away from the door. He would rather face the Risen unarmed, than be fallen upon while crushed in the crowd.

  He saw Domitius tripped and pushed to the floor by an unknowing hand. In their blind panic, the most powerful and senior men in Rome were turning into a riot.

  Vitus pushed himself through a gap and headed towards Domitius on the floor. The Risen was still engaged with her royal meal but it wouldn’t be long before she looked up in search of fresh meat to add to her kill.

  Vitus flashed past the praetor as he was regaining his feet and kicked the de
ad woman hard in the face. The impact jarred his leg and later, he would wonder at his willingness to place his flesh near her mouth. She sprawled away from the dead emperor but recovered quickly.

  “Find something and crush the emperor's head with it,” he shouted to Domitius. He could only hope the praetor got the message, as his focus was directed at the snarling woman in front of him.

  She threw herself at him, seeming to cover more ground in a single leap than he could have managed with five running steps.

  He sidestepped as she slammed into him and the brunt of the impact was deflected. He leaned into her and she sprawled on the floor. He looked around for anything to use as a weapon. There was a legionary eagle attached to the wall and he lunged for it, tearing it from its holder.

  The Risen was on him again before he had time to get his grip on the eagle's shaft. He swung it loosely at her as she attacked again and caught her a glancing blow on the side of the head.

  It should only have been enough to knock her away, however one of the eagle's outstretched wings caught her in the temple and she hit the floor hard, lifeless.

  Vitus turned to Domitius, expecting to see the praetor in need of help. The older man had, somehow, managed to prise a square slab of marble from somewhere. The corner of the white stone was thick with scarlet blood and the Emperor's skull was a mess of bone and mashed brain.

  The two men looked at each other and nodded. Domitius reached over to place a steadying hand on Vitus’ shoulder. His hand was shaking. Turning to the door, they made their way out towards the waiting night.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  The night was cool, as they stepped out of the palace onto the steps, a pleasant evening under any other circumstance. A number of senators were trying to address the crowd, which was becoming agitated. Vitus heard them trying to explain the danger without getting caught up in details that would take the entire hour of grace to explain.