Way of the Barefoot Zombie

by Jasper Bark

  The soul looked down at the mangled remains of the Zombie's penis. It hung in tatters like the fraying dress it wore. The flies of the living dead had left it. They'd swarmed into Palmer on the point of climax.

  Palmer suddenly jerked and held his stomach, writhing in pain. He coughed and a trickle of blood spilled down his chin. His eyes were full of pain and fear.

  "The flies. They're inside me. They're trying to get out. They're... oh God they're feeding on me!"

  Palmer screamed with unimaginable agony as a thousand ravenous little mouths consuming his innards.

  Palmer's soul shook the Zombie's head in contradiction.

  "Not flies Palmer, guilt. You see that's the thing about guilt, sooner or later it eats you all up inside."

  Chapter Forty

  "I have to attack her from the inside," said Doc Papa. "Her magical defences are primed for an external attack. She still thinks I don't know who she is. So she won't expect me to get up close and personal. She won't have shielded her core, at least not where I intend to strike."

  "What if her astral form gets loose?" said Vincenzo drawing the last of the protection charms around Doc Papa in fine ground bone dust and gunpowder.

  "It won't, that's what the binding spell is for."

  Doc Papa was lying on the floor of his ceremony room. It was hidden behind his office on the top floor of Mangrove Hall. He'd had it specially built when he'd renovated the estate. Only he and a handful of his acolytes knew about it.

  It was everything his office wasn't. The magical Id to the Super Ego that was his place of work. Taken as a whole, the two rooms symbolised the duality of his nature as a successful businessman and a powerful Houngan. The office displayed the trappings of his wealth to show the scale of his success, the ceremony room betrayed the strength of his Voodoo and the degree to which the Loa favoured him.

  The ceremony room was not a traditional space like the Ounfó. Doc Papa had brought his vast resources to bear on it, creating a modern, technological approach to the mysteries of the Loa. He was taking Voodoo into the twenty-first century.

  Instead of a bare earthen floor, Doc Papa was lying on a toughened LCD screen. It generated a series of holographic symbols that combined to make a living Vévé which could alter and adapt itself to the exact nature of the ritual at any moment. The precision this gave Doc Papa's psychic will, combined with the traditional charms Vincenzo had drawn, made it an impenetrable magical barrier.

  The speaker system played a series of pre-programmed ceremonial drumbeats, each one looped and intercut with the others to intensify its powerful rhythm. The hi-tech speaker system provided a surround sound that utilised the walls and floor as a series of sub woofers, with the result that the listener could bathe in the sonic waves of the Voodoo rhythms.

  To bind Brigitte's astral form Doc Papa had prepared a black bottle lamp. Hanging from the ceiling was an antique glass bottle filled with castor oil, piment-chien, Guinea-pepper, powdered lizard, the powder of a decomposed corpse, and soot. Tied to the wick was a tiny bag containing samples of Brigitte's hair, a tooth she'd lost and a snipping from her dress.

  Doc Papa had gathered these last items from the old hut by the shore where Brigitte used to live. No-one had been back there since the night they buried her alive. The place was exactly as she left it. It woke long suppressed feelings in him.

  The tooth he had taken from an old charm he had found over a door. The dress clipping from her closet. And the hair he'd collected from the bed where they had lain. It lay on sheets they'd stained with their passions and marked with their scent. In another lifetime when they were other people.

  He knew her true name and he had touched her essence. She was his helpless prey. He would trap her spirit and he would wrest the Gateway of the Souls from her.

  Doc Papa let the life go from his body. The rhythm of the drums bathed his whole being. The living holographic Vévé pulsed and shifted in accordance with his soul's vibrations. He released his astral form and shuffled off his mortal body.

  Doc Papa was just orienting himself and preparing to leave the room in search of Brigitte when Vincenzo surprised him. He rubbed away two of the powder-drawn charms with his foot. Then he dropped another wick into the black bottle lamp and lit it. That wick also had a tiny pouch tied to it. Doc Papa knew exactly whose personal effects were in the pouch.

  Vincenzo was trying to trap him. Thanks to the new wick in the black bottle lamp Doc Papa's astral form was now bound to the room. His body was seemingly defenceless. He would have to wait to see how this one played out.

  He didn't have to wait long. Vincenzo opened the secret door that connected the ceremony room to his office and the five shareholders walked in with their Zombie soul vessels.

  So that was his game.

  "Now you're sure this cock sucker's out cold?" said O'Shaugnessey. "He can't hurt us?"

  "His astral form has left his body and I hold it captive," said Vincenzo. "He is powerless against us."

  "Is he here in the room?" said Walden Truffet. "Can he hear us?"

  "Yes," said Vincenzo. "He can hear."

  Doc Papa watched as O'Shaugnessey walked over to his body and prodded it with his toe.

  "Sorry feller," said O'Shaugnessey. "But we're mounting a hostile takeover. It's not that we don't appreciate everything you've given the corporation, we just don't trust you to run it for us anymore. You have to admit that your recent actions haven't done much to inspire confidence in your decision making."

  "You've lost control," said Lyons. "And the whole thing has fallen to shit. So you're out of the picture as of now."

  So that was their game. Doc Papa's suspicions were right, which was why he'd taken precautions. Of course they'd waited till he was vulnerable before they struck. Which was only good tactical sense. They weren't totally incompetent, he'd give them that.

  Vincenzo had impressed him. It was a shame that his cunning and deviousness would have to be punished. Doc Papa nearly admired them.

  Vincenzo's major failing however, was his arrogance. He thought himself invulnerable to attack. While he was shielding himself from Doc Papa's astral form he hadn't covered his Met-tet, the invisible route by which his Patron Loa could enter his body and ride him. Before he had time to realise this Doc Papa struck.

  He shot into Vincenzo's body and Vincenzo shook violently.

  "What's happening?" said Frank Evans. "Is he meant to be doing that?"

  "No," said O'Shaugnessey. "I don't think he is and I don't think I like what it portends."

  "I wouldn't if I was you," said Doc Papa, taking full control of Vincenzo.

  "That's not Vincenzo," said Walden "Why does he sound like that? Who is it?

  "Can't you guess? I'm afraid Vincenzo is a little indisposed at the moment. You'll have to go through me instead."

  "Doc Papa?" said O'Shaugnessey. "Now wait a minute, let's not do anything hasty. This is business after all. No-one's getting personal here. If you've got a counter offer then we're prepared to listen to it."

  "The only offer I'm going to make you is a quick but painful death."

  Doc Papa walked over to the black bottle lamp and removed the still burning wick. Then he took a small paper disk with some markings on it out of glass jar on the altar.

  The shareholders were muttering amongst themselves the whole while. One of their souls inside a Zombie was trying to make itself heard.

  "You pipe down or you'll get worse than last time," Lyons threatened. Then he turned to Doc Papa.

  "Now look here Papa. Don't think you can intimidate us with all your Hoodoo bullshit. We put good money into your operation and in the last couple of days all you've done is put our lives and our fortunes at risk. We're taking control of this outfit for everyone's benefit, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."

  "I wouldn't be so sure of that," said Doc Papa setting light to the disk of paper. "You see I anticipated that you might attempt a little coup, so I took some precautions."
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br />   As one the Zombies began to scream. Their flesh began to liquefy and drip off them in great, foul smelling gobs.

  "What have you done?" said O'Shaugnessey.

  "I've activated the necrotising spell that I put on your Bakas," said Doc Papa. O'Shaugnessey stared at him non-plussed. "The what?"

  "Necrotising spell. You see the Bakas I gave you were corrupted. If you think of them as a portal and your souls as information, then you'll understand the dangers inherent into downloading them into new machines, in this case the Zombies. I impregnated your Bakas with a magical virus that rode into the Zombies on the backs of your souls. When I burnt that paper I activated the virus. It causes the Zombies to rot away to nothing in a mater of minutes."

  The Zombies were now little more than skeletons standing in puddles of rancid flesh.

  "As you are linked to the Zombies via your souls the virus will also affect you," Doc Papa said. "Taking effect almost immediately."

  The shareholders tried pleading, threatening and bargaining with him. It did them no good. In no time they just looked just like the Zombies. All of them ran together into a fetid pool of bubbling flesh.

  Doc Papa lamented what it was going to cost him to clean this up. He was going to have to get rid of the carpet, take up the floorboards and get the whole room refitted. And that was after he'd had the place fumigated. Still that was for later. There were more pressing things to deal with.

  Doc Papa used Vincenzo's fingers to redraw the protection charms around his still motionless body. Then he took a large sacrificial dagger off the wall. Held the dagger over Vincenzo's left breast. Some distance away he was aware of Vincenzo's Gros Bon Ange pleading with him not to strike. He ignored it.

  Doc Papa plunged the dagger into Vincenzo's heart. As his body fell to the floor Doc Papa discarded it like an old set of clothes. His astral form hovered in the air and looked down at Vincenzo, lying next to the putrid slop that had once been the shareholders and their Zombies. Blood was pouring out of Vincenzo's chest where the dagger had pierced it. More cleaning bills to think of, this had been an expensive exercise in maintaining power.

  Doc Papa put this out of his mind however and returned to the matter at hand. He still had to get Brigitte to give up the Gateway of the Souls. He concentrated on the rhythm of the drums and tried to forget that all the melted flesh was deadening the sound.

  He pictured Brigitte at her most intimate and vulnerable, then he reached out with his mind and went looking for her.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Benjamin was looking for Brigitte. He'd stopped to look at an arrangement of skulls in the wall and they'd turned a corner and left him.

  After trying to feel his way along the tunnel in pitch darkness Benjamin keyed into the Zombies' group mind and followed them. He was slowly working his way to the front of the group where Tatyana and Brigitte were. This wasn't easy though.

  He had to sidestep and slip past the Zombies in the pitch dark. One wrong move and they might pounce on him. He couldn't see Brigitte's lamp up ahead so she probably wasn't close enough to save him if the Zombies did decide to start feeding.

  In the distance he heard the insistent tramp of the guards' feet getting closer. They'd never quite lost the guards. They'd come close several times but the guards always seemed to pick up their trail.

  To throw the guards off, Brigitte had led them into a series of natural tunnels connected to the mine. She told them the whole island was crisscrossed with underground caves and catacombs. Most of them were naturally occurring but a few had been specially excavated by the natives. Like the ossuary where they now found themselves.

  The walls and ceilings of these long tunnels were entirely covered with human bones. Skulls mainly, but there were also intricate arrangements of other bones embedded in the stone walls. This was where the islanders had come to honour their dead and commune with their ancestors.

  Benjamin hoped the ancestors would look out for the Zombies as the guards got closer. He tried not to think about how slow the Zombie's dead muscles and atrophied limbs made them. Or how fast the guards could move.

  He had to fight his rising panic all the time. If he didn't his heart would start racing, he'd break out in a sweat and begin hyperventilating. Any one of those things would give him away to the Zombies.

  He'd been in fear of his life for so long now he couldn't imagine not being in a state of constant terror. His old life of comfort and privilege seemed so far away. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to do simple things anymore, like fixing a snack, watching cable or just calling up friends.

  He clung to the Rules of Interaction like a lifeline. Each one had become like a mantra to him. He repeated them over and over in his mind. It was the only way to ensure his survival. They felt like a series of spells designed to ensure he would come out of this ordeal alive.

  It doesn't matter and you don't care.

  Master yourself and nothing can threaten you.

  He wished he had enough mastery over himself for that rule to be true right now.

  Finally he saw a glimmer of light up ahead as he drew closer to Brigitte and Tatyana. The lamp Brigitte was carrying lit up the ceiling above her. A host of skulls stared down. Their sockets wide with terror, their jaws open in a silent cry of warning.

  Benjamin was getting really close to the other two, but the Zombies directly in front of him were too tightly packed together to squeeze past. He could almost tap Brigitte on the shoulder but he didn't want to risk it in case he accidentally hit a Zombie and his fingers were bitten off.

  They stopped at a crossroads. The tunnel directly ahead of them led out of the ossuary. It wasn't covered with bones but the roads to their left and right were. The Zombies started milling about as Brigitte deliberated over which way to go. Benjamin was able to slip past them and grab hold of Tatyana's hand.

  She turned to him with a look of relief and squeezed his hand to show she was pleased to see him. There was comfort and reassurance in their physical closeness but there was no longer any passion. It seemed like their fear had chased all that away.

  It also felt like they were learning too much about themselves and each other to carry on as before. They just couldn't live inside the dreams that had propped up their relationship before they came here.

  "Which way now?" said Tatyana.

  Brigitte seemed indecisive. "The route ahead of us comes out near the crossroads where I have to take my people. That's where I can open the invisible crossroads between the three worlds of the Loa and our own. Their souls are held captive there. "

  "Well let's go," said Tatyana. "We don't have much time."

  "But I don't want to lead the guards there. We need to shake them before we can get there. It'll be too dangerous otherwise."

  "How long have we got?"

  "Until sunrise."

  "Guys, I don't want to worry you," said Benjamin. "But we haven't got until sunrise until those guards catch us. We've got five minutes or less. We need to make a decision now. Do we stay underground or try and lose them in the jungle above?"

  Before Brigitte could answer she shuddered and almost lost control of her body. Benjamin caught her to stop her falling and Tatyana took the lamp.

  "What's the matter?" Tatyana said.

  Brigitte was rolling her eyes. "I carry a great weight inside me. I was given it by my ancestor for safe keeping. I need it to help my people but the burden is too great. He wants it. He wants it so badly. He's inside me looking for it."

  "Who?' said Tatyana. "Who is it?"

  "I can't fight him," said Brigitte, She looked as though she was struggling to stay conscious. "You've got to protect them. Please look after them."

  Brigitte's face went blank. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her body went limp. Benjamin struggled to hold her up.

  "What's up with her?" said Tatyana. "Is she still alive?"

  "She's still breathing. But she's gone into some kind of coma."

  "What are we goi
ng to do?"

  "Well we can't stay here."

  "Can you carry her?"

  "I don't think so. I'm going to have to put her down."

  "We can't just leave her here for the guards to find. We're completely lost without her."

  Just how lost became apparent when the Zombies around them started to notice their presence. Their hearts were beating faster from the shock of seeing Brigitte keel over. The Zombies could smell this.

  A young female Zombie reached out and ran her fingers along Benjamin's cheek. She put her fingers unsteadily in her mouth and ran them along her dried up tongue. She could taste Benjamin's sweat on the tips.

  Tatyana started to back away. She didn't see the rotund male Zombie come up behind her. She backed right into him and only just managed to get away before he closed his arms about her. She dropped the lamp as she dodged him and it went out.

  Rule Number One, Benjamin heard in his head. Show no signs of life. They'd already blown that. Now Rule Number Two - move in slow motion - seemed totally inappropriate too. All Benjamin wanted to do was get away as fast as he could.

  In the distance he heard a voice call out: "Boys, hey boys, over here. Donovan they're over here."

  The guards had finally caught up to them.

  He and Tatyana were trapped underground, in the pitch dark with an uncontrollable horde of the living dead. The only person who could keep them alive had fallen into a coma. They had to avoid being torn apart and eaten long enough to keep the Zombies safe from the guards, who were also coming to kill them.

  There didn't seem to be a way out.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Brigitte couldn't find a way out. She was trapped. Her astral form had been plucked from her body and she wasn't able to return.

  She was on the second astral plane of the Loas. All around her planetary forces, expressed in strange geometries, intersected with one another to create shapes her earthly eyes couldn't understand and her earthly brain couldn't process.