The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  Dudian stared with gloom at the approaching undeads, as he thought to himself. "They should not be aware of our presence. If they were then they won't acted so slowly. If it was detection through smell, then Scott's group had so many people. They should have left a much thicker scent than us. It seems that there will be more than a dozen undeads..."

  Mason looked at Dudian and asked in a hurry, "Dean, what should we do now? If they close down on this place they will notice our presence."

  "Do not panic." Dudian frowned. Recalling all the previous events he suddenly thought of a a previously neglected issue. "They don't have consciousness, therefore as a result they can't make rational choices. They would even jump down from a high rise building. They don't have the concept of death and aren't aware what is dangerous for them. So how do they identify their preys?"

  Previously, Scott had mentioned that undeads are attracted by the smell of blood and would track accordingly. If that was the case, then the bloody smell of the bodies bitten by the female undead would have been more than enough to lure all of the undeads to that location. Moreover, if they were so bloodthirsty and had such craving for blood then they should attack and bite the hands of other undeads as their claws would have traces of blood on them.

  "However, in reality the moment undeads saw us they chased after us completely ignoring the other undeads on the ground."

  "This proves that although blood is a factor in their attraction towards us but there is more to the issue rather than just blood alone!"

  Dudian's eyes shone as if he gained enlightenment. "The last time the female woman heard Aaron's footsteps, it gave up devouring the Scavengers and ran over to kill Aaron. Could it be that sound is another factor involved that attracts them!?"

  Dudian was unhappy with the deduction. He frowned, as he felt he felt that a very important element was missing from the deduction about the nature of undeads. Scenes after scenes replayed right before his very eyes as he analyzed the actions of undeads from previous encounters ... He came to a realization that it was not sound.

  Even though sound and blood can attract their attention. However... those are not the most important aspects they take into account when they track their preys!

  Dudian deduced that the real reason after his analysis was due to heat emission! ?According to Dudian's reasoning that was the prime method how the undeads tracked after their preys. They could somehow could perceive the heat emission from the body of their preys. In short, they must have thermal vision! However, some of the undeads had their eyes gorged out so Dudian guessed that there must be some kind of a mutated organ within their heads which could automatically sense the surrounding heat.

  Any warm-blooded animals will appear in their perception network.

  Although Dudian can not be 100% assured of this speculation, since the information at hand was limited. He walked towards the window and looked down at the undead corpses. An idea popped up in his mind. "Mason, find something hard and throw it somewhere else to see if you sound can distract those undeads. Zach, light a torch!"

  All three of them were surprised. Although they didn't know why they needed a torch but the notion of distracting the undeads using sound was a solid idea.

  Mason went around the room to search for materials. He returned with few pieces of mud-like bricks from the bedroom's wall. He moved to the back of the kitchen and threw the bricks towards the nearby building.

  Pop! Bricks fell to the ground and turned into powder.

  The Sound was reverberated in the quiet district. The undeads were attracted by the sound. Mason was excited over the results so he kept throwing bricks further and further to lead the undead away.

  Dudian's heart relieved as he saw for himself that sound was an effective tool to lure the undead. Zach had wrapped clothing over a stick and ignited the torch. Dudian immediately said, "Throw the torch out"

  Zach was momentarily taken aback as he couldn't figure out what Dudian thought. However, he listened to Dudian anyway and flung the torch out. It rolled in the air and fall to the ground. The fire was almost extinguished.

  Dudian saw that undeads turned back to look at the torch which had fallen to the ground. Mason happened to throw another brick resulting in huge noise so they turned back again and went after the source of the sound. Soon they left the area to the street where the brick landed.

  Dudian felt that it was strange, were his guesses inaccurate? On the bright side of things, at least they were able to lure them away for now.

  Mason was at his limits because of constantly hurling of bricks. The undeads wandered for a while where the bricks had landed and suddenly turned back to walk towards the street Dudan and the other three were located.

  Dudian and the rest were just feeling relieved when they saw the undeads. They almost shouted out curses.

  What's hell was going on with them?

  Dudian was stunned. Why did the zombies persevered into walking to this area? He looked around but the only thing that came to his mind was that they were the only people present in the area.

  "How would ... ..." Sham stared undeads.

  Sham quickly said, "Quickly, continue to throw stones."

  Mason reacted instantly. He rushed inside to buckle bricks from the wall and came back to throw them. Soon the undead who wandered into the area were lured out. Dudian was not happy as the method they used to lure the undeads was not a permanent solution. Maybe over the time they will attract more undeads from other areas which would pile up to their disadvantageous situation.

  Dudian knitted his brows. How exactly did human body attracted these walking corpses?

  "If its heat, then... Was it possible that these creatures were capable of distinguishing the difference heat emitted between a flame and the human body?" Dudian thought of this point. His facial expressions changed. It seemed that other than lowering their body heat, it seemed to be that there were no other feasible methods to avoid undeads' detection.

  To lower the body's temperature and heat signature, they had to undress.

  However, the amount of the nuclear radiation in the air was too high. If they took off their clothes the radiation contamination values in their bodies would increase rapidly.

  Dudian hunched over to contemplate over the issue. While Mason would throw few bricks from time to time when the undeads returned to the district. He controlled the rhythm of throws so as to produce more effective results.

  After a long while, Dudian made a decision and asked Mason and the others, "Who among you who is willing should go down with me to carry the undead's body?"

  Hearing this all three of them were stunned silly. "Lift them up? What are you going to do with them?"

  "The three dead bodies," Dudian seriously said, "I want to dissect them."

  The quickest way to understand the undeads was to see thoroughly from inside out. Although Dudian had no medical experiences and his knowledge of the human body was limited but in such a harsh environment there were limited methods to try. The only approach to understand the undeads were to check out their bodies as soon as possible.

  "You want to know about their anatomy?!" Mason and the other two looked at him as if he was a freak.

  Chapter 55: Third

  "If you want to...to dissect... Should that not be enough?" Sham pointed to corpse of an old man who was lying on the living room. He seemed to be head of a family who lived in the house.

  Dudian shook his head, "I want to dissect the undead to confirm my speculation on their behaviour. The ones who had been killed by the Hunters would be useless. The ones who are downstairs are in much more better condition and by analyzing their anatomy I can see what kind of changes have occurred in them."

  "I'll go with you," Zach said.

  Dudian nodded. He took his dagger and along with Zach went to the corridor.

  Soon, both of them descended to the ground floor. They peeked out from the door to see that Mason and Sham had lured the undeads away. They quietly opened
the door and ran to the side where corpses of undead were located. Dudian saw that undead's head cracked but there wasn't any blood flowing out from it. He grabbed the undead which was on top of the others. He whispered to Zach to lift the undead from the other side.

  Zach's face paled as no one would be willing to be so close to the bloodthirsty undead. He fought back the fear in his heart. He came forward and grabbed from the other arm of the corpse and they lifted it up.

  Dudian was not worried about infection from the dead body because of the isolative functions of their uniform. They carried it back to the building.

  This corpse was heavier than what Dudian had imagined it to be. It looked like a skinny young man but it felt as if the two of them were carrying a person of three hundred pounds. Fortunately, they had consumed 'God's Blessing' and were several times stronger than a normal person or it would be very difficult to move this body.

  Soon they reach the 9th floor. The stairs had collapsed in here. Even though they could jump past it but they wouldn't be able to carry the corpse. Dudian put down the corpse and went into the closest unit. He checked the house and found that there were no rats or other dangerous creatures inside. So they took the corpse in to the unit.

  The original owners of the unit had long been dead. There were blood stains on the ground which had turned into dust. There was corpse of a young teenager and of a woman. Their flesh had rotted and their remains were colored dark because of the extreme radiation over time.

  Dudian picked few rotten quilts from the bedroom and covered the corpses of the owner. Dudian and Zach swept away the scattered things in the living room and cleared an open space.

  It was at this moment, Mason and Sham who were upstairs had come down as they saw Zach and Dudian had not returned to their original floor. They were relieved to find them but soon they saw Dudian who was beside the undead's corpse. "Do you really want to dissect it?"

  Dudian nodded firmly.

  Until today he would have stayed far away from a corpse. He would be afraid even to look at it. Today scales had fallen from his eyes (TL notes: it is an idiom). He bore witness to Scott and others' despair. He had seen how the undead bite and eat the living humans. Gradually, he had realized that if he wanted to survive, no one will protect him. The only help he had was the dagger in his hand.

  Dudian used the dagger to slowly stamp the corpse's claw. He saw that the surface of the claw was extremely hard. It felt as if it was made of steel.

  "What kind of a biological evolution this is..." Dudian was apprehensive. There was claw-like growth at the feet of the undead too. In addition, both of its' hand and feet were covered in a layer of dark cuticles which gave off a hideous look.

  Dudian looked at its chest. There was a trace of heart. He took a deep breath and stabbed the dagger down. He pierced from belly all the way up to chest. No blood oozed out. Dudian sighed, to tell the truth he would vomit at a sight like that if blood would sputter out.

  Under the gray toned skin there was brown colored flesh and blood. Moreover, everything was frozen inside.

  Frozen?

  Dudian felt that the undead's body was particularly cold. It was ice cold. No wonder that there were no signs of decay.

  However, Dudian had seen the corpses of undead who were killed by the hunters. All of them had serious signs of rotting. Especially, the first undead he had seen in the bathroom. Her face and body were completely rotten.

  Thinking of this, Dudian looked at the body of the teenager who was still lying in the room. He stepped forward to check it.

  Just like the other undeads its head was completely destroyed. It was split from the middle and divided into two. Most probably a very sharp and tough sword was used to cut it open. The boy's neck, arms, chest and other parts had different degrees of decay. His skin was swollen like a blister. Dudian gently poked with the dagger. It penetrated through the skin as if it was cutting tofu. Dark red blood was revealed.

  The smell that it emitted made him feel nauseous. "Why would these undeads after the death would decay and emit the same smell as humans?", Dudian thought.

  "Are these corpses really "alive"?"

  If it was alive, then why it had no consciousness? It lacked even the basic instincts!

  Dudian silently contemplated, then got up and returned to the previous corpse of undead. He opened its eyelids. It had features of a westener. The pupils were green. There were numerous fibers inside the kernel of the pupil. Is it relying on it eyes to track the prey?

  Dudian gently cut its nose, inch by inch. The protruding nose was cut flat, revealing two deep black nostrils. He rolled over its head and cut its ears. He dug a whirlpool around its ears.

  Zach and Sham who were close by and watching the process turned pale. Their legs trembled because of the fear. They were not afraid of the undead's corpse but the expression that was on Dudian's face. They will not forget this scene and remember it for many years.

  Then, Dudian hollowed out the undead's ear. It was filled with the thick dust. The ear had long been filled with layer after layer of accumulated dust. Its hearing should be very weak so why was it so sensitive towards sound? Does it mean that another organ have evolved and replaced the functions of sound detection??Dudian pondered for a moment, pried open the undead's jaw and looked at it's tongue. It was torn. It was bitten by itself as if it was eating up a prey. It didn't know how to protect itself and felt no pain at chewing its own tongue.

  Dudian hesitated as he thought about the way Scott killed the undead woman in the beginning. He had stabbed it in the head and nailed it onto ground. But its body also kept twitching and issued mournful screams. If there was no pain why would it react that way??His eyes flashed for a moment. He waved the dagger along the corpse's mouth cutting it from both sides while pushing the jaw down with pressure. Soon, the entire jaw was cut down but there was no trace of blood.

  The upper cavity was made of chilled flesh and blood.

  There were two more spare bodies downstairs so without further consideration Dudian pierced the head from beneath the jaw with the dagger. Everything inside the head, from broken brain to other organs stirred out as he rotated the dagger.

  Thud! A hard object fell out from the skull onto the ground. It rolled and stopped a meter or so away from Dudian.

  It was only as big as a size of a thumb. This is a thumb-sized, spherical dark blue ball.

  Chapter 56: Virus

  Dudian, Sham and Zach stared at the dark blue ball. They were confused. A ball fell out of ... a head. It was perfectly spherical. The color was dark blue and it looked beautiful. Obviously it was not result of intracranial tissue sclerosis as it looked like a metal ball.

  Only, how could there be a metal in the brain?

  Dudian was anxious and doubtful. He didn't take the initiative to touch it but gentle poked the ball with the dagger. It skid as the blade of the dagger touched it.

  "So hard!" Dudian was mesmerized. Infection rate through hard objects was slow. Moreover it wouldn't penetrate the way liquids did. He had gloves which could isolate from infection. "A Simple touch should be okay", Dudian decided. He moved his hand and picked it up.

  The moment he touched the ball he felt a chilling ambiance. The only feeling that came through his finger nerves was cold.

  Extreme cold!

  He felt like he was holding an ice hockey puck which he just picked from the field. "Did the body, the flesh and blood freeze due to this dark blue ball?" Dudian thought.

  Coldness spread along his arm. He felt the temperature of the entire arm was rapidly reducing and it became stiff. He picked the dark blue ball with his other arm. Coldness began to pierce through his other arm too. Dudian felt his body becoming chilly, as if he was walking naked in the 'black snow season', exposing his body to snow.

  "How the hell does it work? My hands are holding it but my whole body feels cold. I could feel the soles of my feet were numb because of the cold." Dudian was surprised. First it felt like playin
g with snowballs in the winter. The hand would turn cold but body would remain warm. But at that moment, he felt the chills all over his body, as if he was covered by ice blocks all around.

  Immediately, he put the dark blue ball on the ground and rubbed his hands with each other. He felt a bit warmer. Soon his stomach rumbled due to hunger. He had not eaten from the moment they have left the giant wall. He put up with forbearance as there were more important matters at hand than a meal. Suddenly, he thought of a reason.

  "Heat absorption!" Dudian jolted. "This dark blue ball absorbs heat! It works like the saltpeter of gun powder. It is not just one of the raw materials of the gun powder but could be used in ice making. In this world the alchemists have only mastered the use of saltpeter in making ice but have not discovered that nitrite mixed saltpeter can explode..."

  In case saltpeter is placed into small enough amount of water, it will absorb the heat in the water so the water will turn into ice.

  Obviously this dark blue ball had the same endothermic functions of saltpeter which was why he felt his body's temperature decreased. If he held it in his hand, the ball will absorb the heat along the arm. It won't stop unless it will absorb all the heat within the body. After the temperature of the body reduces to certain extent, the heart naturally will stop to function.

  "No wonder! No wonder the temperature of the undead's body is so low and so cold. Dark blue ball is the reason. But where does this ball come from? Why would it appear in corpse's brain?" Dudian mind was full of curiosity. "If it has colonized its brain...Unlikely...It would need very long time and energy to colonize the brain"

  "However the corpse was infected with the virus. Although they are variations but at the end they were humans. They were made up of flesh and blood. How would a hard object like a metal would grow in the brain? That is also strange," Dudian pondered.

  Suddenly a figure jumped from the stairs into the room. All three of them were shocked and alerted.