Caesar and Cleopatra exchanged glances.
Sneferu nodded solemnly, “If you wish to change your minds, say so now. There is no shame.”
Caesar squared his shoulders, “No. We accept your challenge.”
Cleopatra bit her lower lip for a moment and then nodded, “Let us begin.”
“There is one more condition,” Sneferu said gravely.
Caesar frowned, “Isn’t there always.”
Sneferu nodded, “You’re being offered eternal life, my son… the condition is this. Once changed, you agree to work with me. Your current lives are but a spark against a greater conflagration. A thousand years, or two thousand from now, the names of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII will be but notable historical figures from man’s dusty past. As those who live eternally, we bare a burden to our fellow men. Yet we do not rule them. We live outside of the normal flow of human life. We become the watchers, the guardians of mortality, if you will. Do you understand?”
Caesar and Cleopatra looked at each other searchingly for a long moment and then she nodded. Caesar locked eyes with Sneferu, “I would expect and accept nothing less.”
Sneferu smiled, “Excellent! Your bravery has already become legend, mighty Caesar, as has yours my queen. I’m glad to see this reputation is deserved.”
“What must we do?” Cleopatra asked.
“Go into the pit,” Sneferu said, “And I’ll let in your opponents.”
Caesar threw off his cloak and descended the ladder. Cleopatra followed. The pit was perhaps sixty feet across and the far end was shrouded in gloom. The floor was rough and here and there, small stones could be seen lying about.
“Are you ready?” Sneferu asked.
“Let it begin,” Caesar commanded.
Even the ancient Pharaoh felt the power of the Roman’s voice. There was something in this man that compelled you, that urged you to do as he said. The Pharaoh was not surprised yet he was pleased.
He pulled on yet another line and from the darkened end of the somewhat oval shaped pit, a grinding of stone on stone could be heard. As well as something else…
Cleopatra squinted at what appeared to be a doorway. There were sounds from within, sounds of feet shuffling on bare stone. And… and moaning…
There were things moving in the darkness.
“Spread out,” Caesar ordered.
He and Cleopatra sidestepped until there was a dozen feet between them. As they watched, their hearts pounding and, although they couldn’t have known this, adrenaline coursing through their veins.
Four people, or what had once been people, ambled out of the darkness and into the torchlight.
Cleopatra gasped, “What monstrosity is this…”
They truly were walking corpses. What had once been three men and a woman stumbled and shuffled toward the two leaders. Each of them was in some stage of decay. The woman, although barely recognizable as such, had no lips and nose and her eyes were deep black sockets. Much of the skin of her skull had been torn away at one point and only a few wispy strands of long hair remained. She wore only a tattered tunic that was stained here and there with something dark.
Two of the men looked far better. They were bare to the waist and had only a few marks of trauma. Two or three semi-circular wounds on their arms that seemed almost to grin bloodlessly like hideous other worldly mouths.
The final man was the worst of all. Although his face was intact, his entire left arm from the bicep to his wrist had been… chewed to the bone. Grayish white bone was clearly visible and where the flesh ended at his upper arm, strands of decaying horror hung like torn cloth. His belly had been torn open as well, and what remained of his bowels dangled to his knees like gory sausages.
Yet there was no blood. Only a blackish ooze still seeped from the belly wound of the one man.
“Gods preserve us,” Caesar breathed, “how can such things be…”
There was definitely no sign of intelligence in their aspects. Expressions wasn’t really the term for these abominations. Caesar could see that no light of thought glowed from these monsters. Yet he could also see something else. A ravenous hunger seemed to dominate them. He couldn’t have explained how he knew this, but it was obvious nonetheless.
The ghouls began to moan and rasp more urgently now, and their arms came up in a ludicrous gesture as they moved forward. Sneferu was right, they didn’t move quickly.
As they drew near, two of them moved toward Cleopatra and two toward Caesar, as he’d hoped. The idea of coming into personal combat with these filthy beasts was making his stomach churn.
Somehow the queen’s group got to her first. Caesar saw her grit her teeth out of the corner of his eye and smiled despite himself. She wasn’t thrilled about touching these things any more than he was.
The woman made a clumsy lunge at her and Cleopatra delivered a solid kick to the woman’s midsection. The ghoul toppled over backwards, landing hard on her back. There was no indication of pain or distress at all. She simply began to struggle to her feet.
Even as he prepared for his own battle, Caesar had time to think that the hideous woman reminded him of a cockroach on its back. The beast waved her arms and legs crazily in the air for a moment, as if she hadn’t even the mental capacity to realize she was no longer on her feet.
The other of the queen’s combatants was one of the more intact men. He also made a slow and uncoordinated grab for Cleopatra. Although she was small, the queen was a trained soldier. She easily sidestepped the attack and swept the man’s feet out from under him. The ghoul fell straight forward, toppled like a tree and he didn’t even try to break his fall.
He struck the rough stone floor face first and both Cleopatra and Caesar heard several of his teeth snap. Yet he seemed not to notice. He only began to push himself slowly and awkwardly upright again.
“They don’t seem to feel pain!” Cleopatra exclaimed with a mixture of trepidation and rage.
Caesar had no time to ponder this because his two opponents were upon him. They both lunged at him simultaneously, although he could tell it wasn’t a coordinated attack, only just chance that they’d moved together.
He darted between them, spun and drove his fist into the jaw of the relatively healthy-looking man. The impact was jarring and Caesar could tell he’d split at least one knuckle.
Other than his head snapping to one side from the force of the blow, the monster didn’t seem to care. He turned and tried to bite the fist as it withdrew but he was far too slow.
Enraged, Caesar grabbed both men by the hair on the back of their heads, drew them apart and brought their heads together again with as much force as he could. Although there was a satisfying crack, no true damage was done.
Both men were relatively small, at least compared to the tall Roman, each half a head shorter and probably thirty pounds lighter than he. Such a blow would’ve at the very least staggered two living men and at best drove them into unconsciousness.
“What does it take to injure these damned things!” He barked.
“There is only one way to destroy them,” Sneferu called down, “Part of the trial is discovering that weakness.”
Taking a page from her book, Caesar swept the legs of both of his attackers and they fell heavily to the combat floor. He turned to see how Cleopatra was doing.
Her two opponents were on their feet again and she was circling away from Caesar, a fist-sized rock in her hand. As he watched, she struck the woman on the shoulder, opening up a bloodless wound. Again, the abomination didn’t seem to take any notice.
“Gods damn you!” Cleopatra screamed in rage and frustration.
“Are you all right?” Caesar asked, casting about for a stone of his own.
“So far,” Cleopatra said, “The bitch scratched me, though. I suppose first blood goes to them.”
A hand closed on the Roman’s left arm and it was jerked upward. He spun to see the more wounded being pulling with his one good arm, trying to bring Caesar’s flesh
close to his cracked and broken teeth.
“Damn fool,” he cursed himself and jerked his arm away just as the ghoul was about to take a bite. He kicked it in the groin, which of course did nothing to deter the beast. It only sent him sprawling again.
As he turned, Caesar saw the other monster was nearly on him, his blackened mouth open wide. Reflexively, the soldier stepped back and threw a solid jab straight into the mouth of the thing before he realized what he’d done.
His blow was a good one. It knocked several teeth loose and staggered the thing. But it also scraped the knuckles of his left hand across the broken teeth and tore them open.
Caesar roared in pain and rage, grabbed the thing by the throat, twisted his body and flung the man into the other, sending them both to the stone floor again.
He looked at his wounded hand. Three knuckles had a tear across the top and were seeping blood. Not bad, but they stung and seemed to burn with heat.
He wiped them on his tunic and again began searching for a rock.
Cleopatra had managed to knock the woman over and was backing away from the reaching man. She was quickly growing tired of the game. She sidestepped, grabbed the thing by its hair and began to pound her rock against the top of the thing’s skull.
In her rage, she simply pounded and pounded. Even when she heard the bones crack, she still brought her stone down, bits of scalp and even bone flying with every blow.
She was roaring with embattled rage now, her blows made all the more devastating from her fighting madness. When the stone broke through and connected with soft brain, the writhing thing she was holding seemed to stiffen, convulse and then dropped, leaving the queen with a handful of hair and a fist covered in blackish blood and a stone coated with gore.
She was breathing heavily and looking around wildly. The woman was on her feet again and coming closer. But the man she’d been grasping was lying still on the stone floor, his skull caved in from her blows. He did not move.
“Gaius!” She exclaimed triumphantly, “The head! You must crack open the skull and damage the brain!”
Caesar felt his heart soar. He found a sizable stone near the wall, perhaps twice the size of his fist and oblong. He scooped the heavy rock up, a smile of triumph on his face and turned to his attackers.
They were together again and coming closer, their arms outstretched, their mouths open in a mournful moan and their eyes alight with blind primordial hunger.
The roman stepped forward and swung his stone in a sideways arc that connected with the side of the more decayed man’s skull. There was a tremendous crack and he felt the bludgeon sink through the bone and into something soft.
The being stiffened, jerked sideways and crumpled to the stone floor.
Invigorated by his victory, Caesar stepped back and rammed his heavy stone directly into the face of the other oncoming monster. There was a sickening crunch as the delicate bones around the eyes and nose shattered under the force of his blow. The thing staggered but did not stop, however. Caesar grinned and said, “Not enough? Good.”
With surges of power pulsing through his veins, the Roman general slid behind the mindless demon, wrapped one powerful hand around its throat and took hold of its belt in the other. With a lunatic’s strength and a predatory roar of triumph, Caesar picked the man up bodily and rammed him face first into the rock wall close by. There was again the sickening crunch of bone. The hideous thing seized, twitched and then went limp as Caesar let it fall to the dust.
He stopped for a moment to gather his breath. His veins seemed to pulse with energy. Although science wouldn’t identify it for millennia yet, he was feeling the effects of an adrenaline surge and the sudden come down as his body sought to equalize his hormone levels.
He looked over to see if Cleopatra needed help. She was kneeling on top of the woman, who was lying face down on the stone floor. The queen was repeatedly smashing the back of the demon’s skull, every blow accompanied by a savage war cry.
Even from thirty feet away, the Roman could see the death blow had been dealt. He moved quickly over and grabbed Cleopatra’s gore encrusted arm, “It’s done, my love. It’s done.”
She looked up at him, her eyes wild and crackling with fury. It took several seconds before she was able to blink and regain herself, “You?”
He nodded, “My opponents are dead. Not without a cost, though.”
He looked at his raw knuckles. They were inflamed and swollen, which he thought was odd. This was hardly the first time he’d been in a bare knuckle fight. It wasn’t the first time he’d split them open on an opponent’s head, either. Yet they’d never been so swollen, stung so much or seemed to be on fire like this.
Cleopatra rose to her feet and let the stone clatter to the ground, “I received a scratch.”
She held up her bare right arm and Caesar could see a long furrow in the smooth golden flesh. Not deep, but deep enough to weep a little blood. It too was swollen and when he put a finger gently to the scratch, it felt warm to the touch.
From above and behind them, Sneferu applauded, “Magnificent! I don’t think I’ve seen a better performance. Please join me.”
He lowered the ladder and the two combat weary soldiers ascended.
“Are you injured?” The Pharaoh asked.
“Yes,” Caesar said, showing his hand and indicating the queen’s arm, “And they sting and burn more than I’d have thought possible.”
Sneferu nodded, “Yes. Should they bite you, or their blood come in contact with yours, you become diseased and are doomed to become like them.”
Caesar’s eyes grew wide and rage suddenly blossomed within him. Despite what Sneferu had said about his strength, Caesar grabbed the smaller man by his upper arms and slammed him backwards against the wall. He leaned in close, his face mere inches from the Egyptian’s, “You exposed us to those things… and now we’re afflicted!”
Sneferu only smiled and pushed Caesar back, although not without effort. The Pharaoh was surprised at how strong the Roman was, “Be easy, my friend, be easy.”
“Be easy?” Cleopatra said, advancing, “you have damned us!”
Caesar was still gripping the Pharaoh and Sneferu didn’t’ try to break free. He only smiled, “its part of the trial, if you will recall. You must be exposed to their affliction. Now you must drink from the waters of life.”
“Why didn’t we just do that in the first place!” Cleopatra asked, hands on hips and fire in her eyes.
“It’s not the way,” Sneferu replied.
Caesar released his grip. He’d been surprised that the smaller man, although fit, could have pushed him back, “Explain.”
Sneferu patted him on the shoulder, “Brave Caesar, I can’t explain all. I only know that without the undead disease, the waters of life do nothing. Without the waters of life, the disease turns you into one of them. However, when the two are combined, a metamorphosis takes place.”
“Then let’s have a drink,” Caesar said.
Sneferu led them back down the corridor, through his apartment and back into the tomb. Caesar contemplated the pool with the rock in the center.
“What’s that rock doing in there?” he asked.
Sneferu handed him a goblet, “It’s always been there. Imhotep and I discovered it when we were excavating this pyramid. This chamber had once been part of an underground cave system. We’ve refined the presentation of the pool here, but this is essentially how we found it.”
“A meteor?” Cleopatra asked, “Something sent down from the heavens?”
Sneferu nodded, “Quite possibly. Now drink. And anoint your wounds and wash their blood from yourselves.”
Cleopatra was given the cup first, at Caesar’s behest. She drank two full drafts greedily, “Interesting…”
Caesar then filled the small goblet and drank. The water had a strange taste. Not corrupted, but a bit metallic. It was, however, clean and refreshing and he drank several full cups.
He then put his hands in
to the water and held them there for a moment. The cool water helped the stinging and the fire. After a minute or so, he drew them out again and saw to his astonishment that the wounds were no longer enflamed and had already begun to heal.
“It has begun,” Sneferu said.
Cleopatra poured some water on her arm. As they all watched, the angry redness turned to a more healthy pink and the wound seemed to be healing already.
“Extraordinary…” She breathed, “Are we immortal now?”
Sneferu smiled, “Let’s say that you’re… at the threshold. Like an arrow that’s been knocked and pulled back ready to fire.”
“What does that mean?” Caesar asked.
“It means that the change is a slow process, taking months,” Sneferu explained, “Generally, the final transformation comes after some major injury, or even one that should cause death. The body nearly dies, you slip into a deep sleep and when you awake… death is no longer a fear.”
“So until then?” Cleopatra asked.
“Until then you will enjoy considerably robust health and vitality,” Sneferu explained.
“How long does the sleep last?” Cleopatra asked.
“It depends,” Sneferu said with a shrug, “I don’t have all the answers, my children. For some, it lasts days, for others years. But it always results in everlasting life. Never fear. From this day forward, unless your body is utterly destroyed… you will not die.”
It was hard to disbelieve. Both Caesar’s and Cleopatra’s wounds were nearly invisible at this point.
“Thank you, Pharaoh,” Caesar said, clasping his hand.
Sneferu smiled, “You’ve earned it, general. As have you, my queen. Come, let’s rest in my quarters. There is much to discuss.”
Chapter 13
World of Corpses (Book 1): World of Corpses Page 15
