by A. Giacomi
Mario’s eyes are wide and psychotic as he begs us to keep our eyes open for the missing girl. I have a feeling he knows what she has become but was too afraid to put her out of her misery. It is still important to know what we are up against. A small zombie girl, two geriatric zombies, and a few ancient Pompeii statues with newfound mobility. Seems easy enough.
We begin our stakeout with a tour of the grounds. Neither of us has ever been to Italy, so we thought we might as well enjoy it while the coast is clear. I am glad that Agent Williams doesn’t try anything funny while we are on the job. I prefer to keep work and play separate, but that doesn’t mean he is any less distracting. Sure, he is older than me, but he is tall and toned. Any male model would kill for his jawline, strong and sexy, and I can’t help watching his lips whenever they move. I pinch myself whenever I float off into fantasy land; this is not the time nor the place. I do secretly hope Marcus is finding it at least a little difficult to remain professional.
I pause to look at a pair of skeletons embracing, encased in the ruins of this once-great city. Melancholy races through my lungs as I think about their last moments. They would have known that there was no time to escape and instead held each other until the bitter end. I suppose that is a nicer way to go than dying from a horrible illness; you die alone in that case. I think of those stories where elderly couples die in each other’s arms or just weeks apart, and I can’t think of a better way to go. It’s romantic and tragic, and for some morbid reason, I want that fate. I want to grow old and die with someone I love, but that isn’t going to happen. I am already dead.
As we continue our walk through the ruins and scattered bodies and bones, I realize that we are truly in a rather large cemetery. A few of the more intact corpses that were salvaged from the walls are now encased in glass, preserved in a floating transparent coffin.
When I near the glass coffin, I feel a rumble beneath my feet, but when I look at Agent Williams, it seems as though he hasn’t noticed. His face does not mirror mine as I stare up at him.
“What, Eve? What is it?” he asks anxiously.
“You didn’t feel that?” I wait and listen for a moment. Something is rumbling beneath us; it is subtle, but it is there. “Something down there is moving,” I say as I point to the ground.
Agent Williams takes out his gun and prepares himself mentally. Whatever comes next will be a surprise for both of us.
The ground begins to shake harder, and this time, Agent Williams feels it as pieces of stone crumble from the walls of Pompeii. As I glance at one of the walls, I notice a bony hand emerge and claw at the air. Terror hits me as I realize that the trembling ground is caused by bodies reanimating and breaking free from Pompeii’s volcanic chains. More arms break through the stones, and a few arms break through the ground below. I quickly scan the numbers and count at least twenty undead adversaries.
I keep my eyes on the undead until Marcus calls me away.
“Eve, you need to see this!”
He points at the glass coffin that is holding the body encased in molten rock. The rock is cracking like an eggshell around it, and beneath it lays a fiery body howling like a Pterodactyl after its prey. We back away from the glass just in time. The fiery monster bursts through its coffin and lands just feet ahead of us. The monster doesn’t seem very zombie-like; something about the lava has changed it, transformed it into something more horrible and demon-like.
I decide to charge at the being with all my force, and as we collide, I can feel my flesh searing. I scream and fall to the ground as the scent of cooked flesh fills the air. I glance at my arms; they look a little crispier than I remember. Luckily in seconds they are already starting to heal. I turn towards Marcus and tell him to run. I have no idea how I am going to defeat this creature, but my very human co-agent won’t stand a chance.
I hear bullets flying through the air and making contact with skulls. As long as Agent Williams keeps doing that, he will be fine. As for me, we’ll soon find out. I watch the creature walk towards me with its arms stretched out. Its face looks melted and smooth. The only feature that I can still distinguish is the mouth. It still has teeth, and it bares them at me like a hound.
I take a large knife out of my holster and hold it out in front of me. As his arms reach for me, I slice at his wrist, and his hand comes off with little effort. The monster screams as it notices its hand lying on the ground. Before he can reach for it, I slice off the other hand. He holds his fiery stumps into the air and screams so loudly that I think my ears may bleed.
I decide to go for the head. This is the only way to truly stop a zombie, and if that’s what we are dealing with, then he will have to meet the same fate. I back up a few feet and then begin sprinting at him. I jump into the air with both hands on the knife and plunge the blade into his red-hot forehead. The blade sinks in, and the monster goes quiet. I step back, awaiting the result. He stands there for a few more minutes, slumps, and then falls backwards onto the ground. I step over his body to retrieve my knife, and as I do this, he turns to ash and blows away.
There is no time to rest, because once I look up, I see several skeletons have freed themselves from the walls. They are heading towards me at a very slow rate. They will be much easier targets than their fiery brother. I pick up a large rock from the ground and proceed to bash in a few skulls. The ancient skulls shatter into dust, and their boney bodies crumble beneath them.
Once I’ve cleared the space, I decide to seek out Marcus. I don’t hear any more bullets flying or any noise at all for that matter. I begin to call him. “Marcus? Marcus, where are you?” He doesn’t answer, and I begin to worry. I race around corners looking for any sign of life or corpse or anything, but I only hear silence through the slight breeze.
I halt when the ground begins to move again; this is no slight rumble. This is borderline catastrophic. A crack appears in the earth beneath me, and I am quick to race out of its way as the crack grows in size. Pompeii quivers as the quaking earth continues to split. I know I have to find Marcus soon. My gut is telling me Mount Vesuvius is looking for fresh blood tonight.
I begin to sprint, searching every corner of Pompeii for Marcus. My mind races to the worst possible conclusions, but then there is a hand on my back. I wield my knife, ready to sink it, but when I turn to attack, I notice that it is Agent Williams. I am about to hug him, but he keeps me at a distance and places a finger to his lips. He needs me to be cautious; danger is undoubtedly nearby.
When I turn around, there is a small girl looking at us with fiery, undead eyes, her lips still stained with someone’s blood. She looks so innocent, but my mind knows better. She is like me, but the Azrael Virus has taken over entirely. Someone so small won’t be able to fight such a deadly virus coursing through their veins. I see that whatever bit her took a rather large chunk out of one of her legs so that the bone is exposed. I want to weep for what I must do next. I take Agent Williams’s gun and aim it at the snarling child. She starts to hungrily walk towards us, and I’m forced to do something I never thought possible. She is already gone, I tell myself, but as I look at her, I see that she once lived, she had her whole life ahead of her, and it was stolen. I know about stolen futures and possibilities, but right now isn’t the time for a pity party. Through clenched teeth and a stream of tears, I point my gun, uttering, “Goodnight, sweetie,” as I pull the trigger. The blast echoes, and her small body crashes to the ground. I hand the gun back to Marcus, disgusted with myself. I want to mourn her, even though she is a stranger to me. It feels like we shared something, and that something is in our blood.
However, the night isn’t over yet. The earth beneath us still shakes as Marcus points to a set of cocooned bodies, much like the one in the glass casket that I just fought. The rock around them begins to crack as the ground continues to rumble beneath them. Something about this volcano is causing the dead to stir.
I whisper to Marcus, “We can
’t stop them. There’s too many.”
He nods, and we begin to slowly retreat towards the exit. When we reach the gates, the car we requested sits there undisturbed; we can leave now and come up with a new plan of attack. As I’m about to touch the car door and open it, a large blast punctures the air. Agent Williams and I watch as Mount Vesuvius blows searing magma into the air. I’ve never witnessed something so beautiful, but I have to remind myself that it isn’t a picture; this is real.
My amazement doesn’t last long. Marcus screams, “Get in the car!” with such desperation that I leap inside. Marcus spins the car as he slams his foot on the gas, leaving a cloud of dust around us. I don’t even notice the fiery zombies in pursuit of us until Marcus begins to drive away. I look out the rear window and watch the zombies scream into the night, but they are not even close to as terrifying as the red liquid that begins to flow down the volcanic mountain. I fear that Pompeii may once again be covered. Perhaps it will rid us of these ancient zombies, and if that is true, then I hope Mount Vesuvius will swallow it whole.
“I thought zombies were afraid of fire. That’s what all those movies said,” Marcus exclaims while he drives away frantically.
“Maybe they are and that’s why they rise, to distance themselves from it, maybe fire is their kryptonite? Or maybe, they can’t resist it at all? I apologize, I’m just rambling ideas out loud here, but maybe, somehow the volcano was infected, and over many years the Azrael Virus seeped into the earth and brought the dead back to life. Just a theory, of course, but maybe fire is how they are born.”
Marcus seems impressed by my deduction and gives a little smirk at the corner of his mouth. His asshole smirk had actually become a bit endearing.
When we reach the nearest police station, it’s clear to see that things are currently out of hand. People are running around frantically, answering phones and exiting the building at a rapid pace. I’m not sure if they are on their way to help others or simply fleeing for themselves. Marcus and I race into the building and demand to see the chief, or capo as they call them in Italy. Marcus shows off his CSIS badge, and an officer leads us to the chief’s office.
Marcus and the chief discuss the incident for a moment, and then Marcus asks to use the phone to call Special Agent Vallincourt. I suppose he will need to be brought up to speed quickly. The chief gladly offers up his phone.
“Vallincourt, Vesuvius is alive and well. Our hope is that the magma destroys the city. It would swallow our little issue whole. Our goal is to stay put until morning and then reexamine Pompeii for any of the infected that remain, and we will retrieve samples for Dr. Augustus’ use.” Marcus finishes his speech and then listens attentively to Vallincourt’s response. I can’t hear what he says, but Marcus looks tense for a moment.
“Mar…I mean, Agent Williams, what is it?”
“Nothing, Agent Brenner. We are to remain here until it is safe to venture back and retrieve some samples, that is all.”
His cold response irks me. I am more than Agent Brenner to him now, and the way he dismisses my question leads me to believe he is hiding something. That is unacceptable.
***
The next day we are given the okay to move out. The volcano has decided to cease its activities for the time being. Pompeii wasn’t completely destroyed, but a good amount of it was affected by Mount Vesuvius’ attack. My hope is that the zombies were destroyed along with any evidence of them. It will make our work much easier if we don’t need to come up with an elaborate cover up every single time.
Agent Williams and I don’t speak much. I go off in one direction and he another. As I walk around the melted city, I take a few samples of earth in little tubes to take back to the CSIS lab for examination. When I am about to scoop up my next sample, I notice that my arm turns a strange blue hue as the zombie veins creep up to my elbow. It aches like a muscle spasm. I flinch and remove my arm from the dirt, rubbing it and examining it, but the marks are gone. Something in the dirt is causing me to turn. I have to get a sample; this could be a breakthrough. I bite my lip hard and ready myself for the pain. As I near the dirt and place my hand in, my entire arm starts to burn as the blue veins climb to my shoulder. I quickly collect the dirt, seal it, and remove my hands from the earth. The burning slowly ceases, and my arm returns to its normal state. As I shake the dirt in the tube, I notice that there is a tiny red rock inside. The glow of it is so enticing I almost want to go back in and fetch it, but then I remember the searing pain and decide to place it in my pocket.
I nearly drop the vial when I hear, “Hey! Whatcha got there?”
Agent Williams has snuck up behind me. The vial never makes it to my pocket; instead, Agent Williams takes it from my hand to examine it. “You got any other samples?” I nod and hand him the other vials. He thanks me and then places them into his special briefcase of samples.
I don’t tell him about my arm and what the red rock did. I have a feeling I should save that information for Dr. August. He found a similar rock in Egypt when his friend Vincent was infected. He gave the rock to me for safe keeping, and I hid it well. There is something strange about this rock. Good and evil lives inside of it somehow, and for some reason, I feel that it can save me. Perhaps that is just wishful thinking.
A few hours later, Agent Williams and I have thoroughly checked the grounds. No zombie sightings were reported, and no evidence of them remains. All that is left is a city left in ruins once more. I guess what they say about history repeating itself is truer than I could have ever imagined.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DR. AUGUST
Eve bursts into the lab and embraces me with a large hug. I can’t imagine what the occasion is. We already celebrated her birthday, and mine is still far off.
“Eve, lovely to see you. How did things go in Pompeii?”
She shrugs but eventually tells me that Vesuvius destroyed the city once again. This is both a relief and an upset for a scholar such as myself. It is difficult to believe that beautiful city is gone again. Eve fills me in on every detail. She tells me of strange fire zombies, skeletons coming to life, and then she tells me about the rock. The rock that still haunts my dreams. She says she found another. It has been my suspicion for many years that the rock I possessed might, in fact, have been a piece of a much bigger rock. It was split apart for a purpose, but for what, I can’t be sure. I read every book, spoke to every geologist, but still, I never found mention of this strange red rock in any of my research. I know that back in the day of kings and queens and knights, they believed that rubies could cure blood diseases; some knights would even implant rubies under their skin before battle in order to guarantee their victory. It is the rarest among gems, with the richest history, and yet what Eve has found is not a ruby. It is something much more, and I have yet to discover its power and purpose.
Eve continues to tell me about the rock’s effect on her arm. She mentions that every time she neared it, her arm turned to its zombie state until she moved away. This peaks my interest; something about the rock is magnetic. I am so excited that I ask Eve to produce the rock immediately. I want to start my research and hopefully find her some answers.
When I hold out my hand to her, she shakes her head. “Sorry, but Agent Williams has it for now. I’m sure he’ll bring it to you later.”
I feel anger rising in me. I expected her to hide something this important from them. I worry that she might forget that it is us against them; they are not our true friends, and they are not our allies.
“Eve, how could you let Agent Williams take it? What in God’s name are you doing? If you want answers, you are going to have to trust me. Do you really think they are interested in finding you a cure?” I raise my voice near the end, which makes Eve look a little uncomfortable.
“Dr. August, we can trust Agent Williams. He’s not the monster I thought he was.”
Eve stuns me with her defense of
a secret agent she knows nothing about. I want her to be more cautious, not befriend them.
“Eve, you shouldn’t take candy from strangers!” I state in a fatherly tone.
She looks at me, confused. “Good advice, but I’m not five. What exactly do you mean by it?”
“It’s still solid advice. It’s just that when you’re an adult, the candy usually becomes something more sinister, such as empty promises and illusions. Just be careful, Eve.”
I can tell that she is annoyed by my parental tone, but I am the only family she has here, the only person who truly cares what happens to her. The sooner she realizes that, the safer and wiser she’ll be.
She scowls at me. “You’re wrong! You’re wrong about him, and you’re wrong about me. He’s not the monster…I am!”
And with that, she storms out of the lab. I can tell that I have hit a soft spot, and it dawns on me that she may, in fact, care for that son of a bitch. He is winning her over, and that is a danger I haven’t anticipated. I hope Eve is right, that Agent Williams is one of the good guys, but I just can’t swallow that. Something about it tastes bitter.
***
A few days later, Agent Williams decides to finally present me with the red rock they discovered in Pompeii. I agree to do some testing on it and report back to him and only him. I find the request quite odd. He is adamant that I speak to no one else about my findings, not even Eve. A red flag indeed. I don’t show my concern; instead, I agree to his demands and decide to watch him much closer. If Agent Williams is hiding something, I feel that it is my duty to figure it out and warn Eve.
It takes me about twelve hours to run enough tests on the rock to be completely sure of one thing. Fire brings the rock to life! It is like an “on” switch.
