The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel

by Michael Wallace

  She yanked the bag off and the human stopped her rant with a startled expression on her face. The zombie queen asked, "What's your name?"

  The human scanned the room and slowly reverted to her threats. Salsa glanced at Patricia and said to her, "I can understand her, but this will not work unless she can understand me. I have to transfer some DNA into her body."

  She grabbed the woman by the back of her head and pressed her mouth against the human's lips. Silenced, the hostage struggled and squirmed to get her face away, but the former dancer held them close in a wet kiss. Pulling away, the hostage returned to her rant with undead saliva dripping from her lips. Salsa stepped back and said, "We'll let that settle in for a moment and see if it works."

  The woman's tirade came to a sudden stop as her eyes opened wide and she glanced at the all re-ans around her. Patricia commented, "I think we have her attention."

  Salsa translated the woman's groans. "She wants to know why she can suddenly understand us."

  The lady pirated requested, "I would like to understand her language. Perhaps you should share your stings of life with some of us."

  Salsa pressed her lips against the lady pirate and pulled her close. As they pulled apart, Patricia said, "I can understand the human."

  The zombie queen with the blue eyes walked around the stage kissing the other living dead. After she smacked Prometheus on the lips, he heard the woman say, "Why is it you no longer look so dead and decayed? You almost look like you're still alive. What's happening to me? Have I transformed into a re-an?"

  Salsa stepped in front of the woman and said, "Let's start with your name."

  With astonishment cemented on her face, the woman cautiously said, "My name's Pink."

  Reaching in one of the pockets on her long coat, Salsa pulled out the white video camera. She switched it on and handed it to Prometheus. "General Brown gave this to me. I would say if there was ever a time to update our Facebook status, it would be now."

  The ancient Greek man shook his head in confusion. "I don't understand."

  Salsa wrapped her hands around his to show him how to hold the electronic device. "Just hold this steady and keep this end pointed at me and our new friend. The camera will do the rest."

  Pink called out, "What's going on? Why can I understand what you're saying? You're not groaning and hissing at me anymore. Have you always had the ability to speak? What are you going to do with me?"

  "You are also no longer moaning and hissing at us, missy." Salsa said, as she strutted around her prisoner. "You have been chosen to bring our message to the world. Consider it an honor. You've made it into the history books. They are going to build statues of you in parks. You are going to be the key to human survival."

  Holding her bound hands up, she replied, "Please let me go. I don't want to become one of you. Once, there was a time when I actually fought for your rights. I'm not the person you want for this plan."

  Walking around the stage, Salsa explained, "See this man holding the camera, he's from ancient Greece. The man who grabbed you on the road is an ancient samurai warrior and the woman beside him sailed the world's oceans as a pirate during the eighteenth century. I walked the same streets as you. We probably stood in line for coffee together and we never knew it. You see, when we died, our souls were transferred to these bodies. It's the god's way of recycling."

  "Your souls were transferred into dead bodies? Why?"

  "We all carry new strands of DNA. Humans need these new genes to continue to evolve on this planet."

  "How do you have new DNA? Why would we need this to continue our evolution? What gods sent you here?"

  Continuing her performance, Salsa removed her top hat, held it out for one of her servants to take from her hand. "So many questions and so little time." She paused and the distant sounds of the battle filtered through the auditorium. "It's called gene fade and the human population has reached its end. Your gradual extinction has already begun. Without these new strands of life, you will go the way of the dinosaurs. Think of it as though the gods have given you the chance to start over."

  "What are these new strands? How are they going to keep us from going extinct? What gods are you talking about?"

  "We carry all kinds of goodies. As you probably guessed, I have the ability to understand all languages. When I kissed you and transferred my saliva into your mouth, you acquired this trait when you ingested my DNA."

  Pink glanced around the stage at the other undead. "What other abilities do the other re-ans have?"

  Salsa placed one finger on Prometheus' shoulder. "Our Greek friend here has the ability to cure all cancers. I'm sure the drug companies are going to hate that." She walked to the stage and pointed to various zombies. "We have the cure for diabetes, immunity to poisons, vision in new light spectrums, the Omega virus and pretty much any thing mentioned in all of the medical journals."

  "So you have the cures for all diseases and all we have to do is ingest some of your DNA and we will continue to evolve? We will be free of disease and all other maladies which have plagued us throughout time."

  Salsa stopped her strut in front of her prisoner. "It's a little more complicated than that, but you have the basic idea."

  An explosion tore through the heavy wooden doors at the entrance to the theatre. Soldiers poured through the settling smoke with flamethrowers. Zombies caught in the streams of fire ran toward the attackers. They wrapped their fiery bodies around the soldiers, causing the flamethrower units to explode into massive fireballs.

  General Brown and his men burst into the auditorium behind the soldiers engaged in battle with the humans. The clang of metal swords echoed off the walls. Several grenades went off in different parts of the room. As the smoke cleared, the large number of living dead had surrounded the few remaining soldiers. Gathered in a circle in the center of the theatre, a soldier pulled a grenade out of his side pouch. As the other soldiers placed their hands on the explosive, Prometheus heard him yell, "If we're done, we're taking as many of you bastards with us as possible."

  Salsa screamed from the stage, "No! Wait!"

  The grenade detonated and shredded both the humans and undead spraying their body parts throughout the room. While the debris fell to the ground and the smoke settled, General Brown slowly stood from underneath a mound of crumbled drywall and said, "We don't have much time before their reinforcements arrive. We need to get Salsa out of here." He glanced up at the front of the room as fear and excitement spread across his face. He ran and jumped up on the stage where Patricia and Salsa kneeled over their human captive.

  Brown stood over them and called out, "Pink! Is it really you?"

  Still holding the video camera, Prometheus pointed it toward the human lady who had a wooden shard from the shredded front doors, sticking out of her chest. Blood oozed out of the wound as she struggled to breathe. The former military leader dropped to one knee, lifted her head gently in his hand and said, "Hold on we'll get you some help." He couldn't understand her response and asked, "What's she saying?"

  Salsa grabbed the back of his head and kissed him. With his eyes refocused on Pink he said, "You can't die, not now. I'll get you to a mobile hospital. They'll get this little splinter out of you and you'll be as good as new."

  With blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth, Pink responded, "Who are you?"

  "It's me Chris. I know it doesn't look like me. When I died, my soul was placed in this strange body, but I promise I'm the same person who's had a pathetic schoolboy crush on you for years."

  "You had a crush on me?" She managed to form a slight smile through the pain. "Why didn't you ask me out on a date? You would have liked my answer."

  "The general and the tree hugger named Pink. What an odd couple we would have made. Plus, I was two feet taller than you were. Dancing would have been a problem."

  Pink tried to bring a smile to her face through all the pain. "I think we would have been a great team."

  He wiped some of th
e blood away from her mouth. "I always wanted to ask, how did you get the name Pink? It couldn't be the name your parents gave you."

  "It's comes from my last name, Rosasingen. In German, it means pink song. So, all my friends started calling me Pink."

  "What's your real name?"

  Before she could answer, Pink closed her eyes and passed away in his arms. Brown lowered his head in sorrow. Salsa grabbed the video camera from Prometheus, turned it off, and placed in Pink's front pants pocket. She pointed to two of her bodyguards. "You guys need to take her to that lab where you found me. The one we sometimes use as a safe house. There's a freezer in the back that's still operational. We'll place her body inside to keep it preserved. After we spread our message to the rest of the humans, they can give her a decent burial. Maybe she can be the first human buried as a symbol the war is over."

  The undead bodyguards lifted her from the stage floor and carried toward the back entrance to the theater. Prometheus spoke up, "I'll go with them to help place her at peace." As Salsa glanced up at him with fright in her eyes, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He slapped his hand on the source and found a small red dart. The concussion from an explosion caused his ears to go deaf while he fell to the ground. He saw more re-ans fall with red darts in various parts of their bodies. His body felt as though it burned from the inside.

  Salsa pulled out a handgun tucked it in her waistband, and fired it into the auditorium as an explosion erupted behind her. The giant red curtain fell from the rafters. A zombie engulfed in flames ran across the stage in a silent macabre scene as Prometheus slowly closed his eye while darkness and silence fell upon him.

  Chapter 28

  Prometheus opened his eyes and saw a mat of intertwined green vines covering the ceiling. They ran down the decayed curved walls and spread out on the dirt floor. Sunlight lit the area from the large opening to the tunnel a few feet away. Beyond the entrance, blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon, as fresh clean smelling air lofted through the tunnel. He sat up and saw himself surrounded by people draped in animal skins. Judging by the grayness of their skin and the stringiness of their hair, he knew they had to be re-ans.

  One of the undead touched the Greek man's face and said, "It worked. The song of dead and this body brought one of our ancestors back to us and he has the legendary blue eyes. I told you the song is more important than the dance." He turned toward the Athenian. "Please tell us where you are from."

  Prometheus swung his legs to the side of the table and tried to clear his mind. He did not know if had returned to the same world or if the gods had placed him in a new domain. "I am from Athens many centuries ago. What is your name?"

  "My name is General and I am of the Douglas tribe."

  The Greek man scanned the remains of the tunnel covered in live growth. It had been years since he had seen green foliage. "Is the war over?" He looked down at his primitive brown soft leather shirt and pants made from deer hide.

  The undead around him stepped back with astonishment. Their leader said, "Do you know of the war between the humans and the Rans?"

  "Yes, I was there at the beginning and many of its years thereafter. Is it over? Did the humans take the strings of life?"

  General said to him, "The war has been over for a little more than one hundred years. We only know of it from stories told to us by the elders." He paused and brought his glance downward. "That is the stories our elders told us when we were still alive."

  The Athenian slid off the crude wooden table and walked out of the tunnel entrance. Outside, for the first time in years, he saw a clear sky, trees filled with green leaves, and heard the songs of birds with no ravens to be seen anywhere. The ground was void of war debris, demolished building, and only carpeted with various green grasses and colorful flowers. "Where are we? This does not look like the future world where we fought the livings."

  "We are standing outside one of the dark tunnels. When we were human children, our parents often told us to stay away from these caverns, because Rans lived in them. As we grew older, we thought Rans were just a myth told to us so we would not stray from our village. No one had seen a Ran since the time of our grandparents and they were thought to have died out many years ago. But, after I drowned in the river, I found myself here, living with a tribe of the exact creatures of the legend. We have many stories of the humans attacking us with an unseen fire, so we keep ourselves hidden."

  While staring in amazement at the landscape Prometheus asked, "If the war is over, why are we still here?"

  General wrinkled his brow with puzzlement across his face. "We are here to pass our stings of life to the living. Only, we do not know how."

  "We haven't passed our gifts to the humans?"

  "If you fought in the war, would you not understand this as our mission?"

  He turned to General with a bit of anger building up in his voice. "Where's Salsa?"

  "Who?"

  "Midnight? Patricia the lady pirate? General Brown? Greg the samurai warrior, are they still here?"

  Dan glanced with confusion at the other primitively dressed members of his undead clan. "We have never heard of such people."

  Prometheus suddenly realized something. "Wait, where is the old laboratory?"

  "What is a laboratory?"

  "Never mind. Where is the old city center?"

  "Do you mean the ancient ruins? We have been told never to go there, because evil lurks in the darkness and shadows."

  The Athenian grabbed Dan by the shoulders. "Why, why can't you go there? What evil is in the ruins?"

  "The warning has been passed down for all these years to stay away. We do not remember the reason, only that evil is in the darkness."

  "We need to go these ruins. I must see if the laboratory is still in place."

  * * *

  Prometheus and the animal skin re-ans approached what was left of the ancient city of Denver. Only the bare skeletal frames of a few buildings remained no higher than the first floor. They had been completely encased in green vines and the trees covered them to the point where they were difficult to see from a distance. The grounds which once bore the black asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks lay blanketed in a carpet of tall green grass which swayed in the wind, giving the illusion of ocean waves. Scanning the area to get a sense of where they were, Prometheus spotted a mound covered in bushes, in front of the remains of a brick corner section of a building. He pointed and said, "There, that has to be it."

  As they walked toward the mound, General asked, "Tell me Prometheus from the Athens tribe, why are we in the forbidden grounds? I do not like being here as our elders warned us to stay away. It will not serve us well if we anger the gods."

  "Your elders warned you to stay away, because this is where the dead lived.' He turned to his new friend. "You are one of the dead." He brought his attention back to the section of the building. "We are here to complete the prophecy."

  "What prophecy?"

  Walking around the mound, he saw the edge of a staircase leading into the ground hidden under a large rock. Pushing against the obstacle, he said, "Help me move this. The laboratory is down below.

  With the rock out of the way, Prometheus answered General's question as they walked down the remains of the stairs. "At the beginning of the uprising, the K.C. from Golden brought us the prophecy from the Gods. I believe the final piece needed to fulfill it is down here." They carefully made their way through the dark cavern of rocks, tree roots, and scattered lab equipment covered with a century of dust and dirt. "It went like this; the soft colored song will carry the words of the chosen one. These words will be held silent for 100 years, until the one who holds the spark of the flame gives them to the children of the descendants."

  As Prometheus pulled aside a curtain of roots and unveiled the stainless steel door to the walk-in freezer, General said, "I don't understand what this means."

  "My good sister Salsa was the chosen one who could communicate with the humans. Her words were
given to the soft colored song to hold for one hundred years." He pulled the door open and the interior light illuminated the room. General and his re-ans gasped at their first sight of white artificial light. A frosty mist rolled out of the freezer as Prometheus invited the others inside.

  The re-ans wearing animal skin shivered and held their arms to their shoulders. General said, "It is like the days of white in here."

  In the back of the freezer, the Athenian saw the frost covered frozen body of Pink. He pointed to her and said, "This lady is the soft colored song. Her name is Pink." He reached into her pocket, pulled out the video camera and held it up. "These are the words she held for one hundred years. We must take this to the humans."

  * * *

  Walking across the grassy meadow, under a bright clear sky, General and the others stopped while Prometheus continued toward the village. The sight of the living dead caused the villagers to scramble in a panic, between their grass and adobe huts. Mothers grabbed their children to keep them away from harm and the men gathered hunting spears and bows.

  Entering a dirt path leading to the edge of the settlement, Prometheus held the video camera out in front of him. The men of the village formed a line across the entrance and held their spear tips out to stop the monster. A few feet from the trembling guards, he placed the camera on the ground, with the viewing screen toward the men, and then he pressed the power button.

  Slowly backing away into the meadow, he heard Salsa's voice say, "Just keep it steady and point this end at our friend."

  The men's eyes lit up, as they cautiously lowered their spears. One man slowly stepped toward the camera and picked it up. Prometheus backed away from the men and let them watch the video.

  As the humans listened to Pink translate the moaning sounds of the re-ans, they relaxed their guard. At the end of the video, one of the village men cautiously walked away from the village entrance and approached Prometheus. Standing ten feet away he asked, "Can you understand me?"