by Art DeForest
6
I’d just sat down in front of the TV with a hamburger and a cold brew when my phone rang. Looking at the screen, I saw Alex’s name.
“Dammit, I just sat down to dinner.” I said by way of greeting.
“Put it in the fridge for later,” He promptly responded. “There’s been another disturbance out at the cemetery. The caretaker said some freaked out druggie dressed as he lived in the ‘70’s charged him as he was shutting the gate for the night.”
“Charged him? You mean shuffled after him moaning don’t you?” I said skeptically.
“The guy swears that it was running when it hit the fence. He said if he hadn’t had the gate locked it would have gotten him.”
“Alright, we’re headed that way.” I said with a sigh. “Keep everyone back. You know the drill.”
“On it,” he said as I clicked off.
I quickly sent a group text to the team and headed for the door.
The Mustang rumbled through the night at exactly four miles per hour over the speed limit. I didn’t need the delay a speeding ticket would cost me, and I knew how far I could push it. Pulling into the underground parking garage, I could see that a couple of the Dreadnoughts were already there. Jake’s old Jeep and Petey’s lifted Ford F250 were already in their assigned spots.
I jogged over to the express elevator and punched in the security code that gave me access. Two minutes later I was in the locker room, putting on my tactical gear. Shucking my street clothes, I donned a pair of Fire Hose work pants. Tough and resistant were the name of the game. They were even water...or blood proof. A black Under Armour shirt came next followed by a heavy T-shirt. The extra layer helped stop the body armor I put on next from wearing holes in my delicate flesh.
The .45 went on one hip, and the K-bar went on the other before I reached in and pulled my newly suppressor accessorized Saiga from its spot in my locker.
By the time I was dressed everyone else was accounted for. Two minutes later the last of the stragglers (Tommy. He always seemed to be on a date when a call came in.) was dressed, and we headed for the team Suburbans.
I briefed the team over our comm units as the two big Chevy’s cruised through the night. No, they weren’t black. One was blue, and the other was maroon. Black Suburbans stick out like a sore thumb. Everyone thinks you’re a gangbanger or a fed. Funny how those two groups have similar tastes in vehicles.
“According to Alex, the caretaker swears that the assailant charged him at a run,” I said, summarizing. “He was probably just freaked, but assume the worst.”
We pulled up outside the cemetery to find Alex standing beside his SUV.
“I haven’t seen anything from here, but I wasn’t about to go in by myself.” He said as I approached.
“Wise of you,” I said with a smile. “My boys and girls will check it out. You stay out here near a radio in case it’s something worse than a couple of zombies.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” He said, reaching in and grabbing a nice hot cup of coffee from the cup holder of his vehicle with a grin. Jerk.
We broke out the shields and formed up at the gate. Alex had retrieved the key from the maintenance guy and had it open for us.
We dropped our night vision goggles into place and formed up in a box formation. Petey and John led the way with shields ready. The other two shield guys, Ray and Jake, took up positions on the flanks. Money and Tommy hefted their newly suppressed Saigas and took up position behind Petey and John. Lori and I brought up the rear where we could backup our guys and cover the rear.
If we were fighting humans who might have guns, I would have used a more spread out formation so that we could maneuver, but when you deal with creatures that have to get within arm’s length to do their damage, the close formation works better. Especially when you factor in the possibility of supernatural strength and speed.
Through the green glow of our NVGs, we could see a taped off section of the graveyard. Of course, it was back in the far corner. Bad guys never seem to do things right up front by the gate. It’s really inconvenient.
The cemetery seemed fairly nice, lush grass surrounded the grave markers and trees of various sizes grew along the edge and were interspersed throughout the cemetery itself. We took a straight line towards the taped off section, scanning the night and checking behind any grave marker large enough to hide something nasty.
It took a few uneventful minutes to reach the site of the zombie summoning. When we reached the tape, I had the formation sidestepping along the perimeter keeping our focus on the disturbed mounds of earth. Apparently, I should have been focusing on the trees.
Our first indication of trouble was when a pale white body fell from the night to land on Money. The momentum carried both Money and the monster into Ray, and they all went down.
“Wight!” cried Lori urgently as she reached for her tomahawk, knowing we couldn’t shoot the damned thing when it was in amongst us.
Crap, wights are nasty. They resemble the people they were in life, but with pale almost translucent skin that was way tougher than it had any right to be. Similar to ghouls, they also had a magical touch ability. The wights differ in that instead of a touch that paralyzes, like that of a ghoul, the wight’s touch drains energy, leaving the victim exhausted and slow mentally. Some people can shake it off, but most just lay there and get eaten.
Team discipline and hours of practice saved our lives then because no sooner had the wight taken down Money when another one hit Jake’s shield on our flank. The impact forced him back a step, but he retained his footing. The wight continued to scrabble and push at the shield, trying to get at the meaty goodness behind it. This gave me the time I needed to sidestep and get a clean shot at it as John pivoted 45 degrees and brought his shield around to cover Jake’s left side.
A three round burst from my Saiga sent the creature sprawling to the grass, but it didn’t stay there. I did mention how incredibly tough their skin is, right? The wight leaped to its feet and lunged to attack again. This time, John was the unlucky recipient of it’s attention. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to keep his footing and went down with the wight landing on top of him and his shield.
We were so screwed. Both wights were in among us now, and that took the Saigas right out of the equation. I’ve never heard of anyone beating these bastards with blades and maybe handguns if we got just the right angle.
In a fraction of a second, my eyes took in the scene like a snapshot. Money was down and limp. The wight on top of her was scrambling to remove Lori’s tomahawk from its shoulder. Ray was struggling to get up and into the action. His shield was still in his hand, and he was clawing at the pistol on his hip.
Petey was as reliable as the mountain he resembled. He continued to focus on his area of responsibility in case there were more of the bastards. Only occasionally would he flash a glance over his shoulder at the conflict behind him.
On the other side of the formation, John was also limp now, but the wights attention was focused back on Jake as he tried desperately to force the monster off his buddy, using his shield.
I started to reach for the .45 and my K-bar thinking all the while that we’d finally met our match. The faces of my wife and daughter flashed through my mind. Maybe I’d get to be with them again. Then, oddly Siobhan’s face replaced them in my head. I flashed back to our conversation about my medallion and how I may be able to control lesser undead.
The prospect of imminent death can focus one’s mind brilliantly. I threw everything I had into a command aimed at the two monsters amongst us. “Stop!!” I commanded thunderously. My eyes widened in amazement as they both paused and two sets of eyes shining sinisterly in the green light of my NVGs focused their attention on me. They stayed frozen for only a second, but at least now all their attention was on me instead of the team. Go me.
Both wights immediately started trying to get to me. That meant the wight on Money swung a vicious backhand at Lori that sent her sprawling. P
etey and Ray were in no position to be of help. Any action they took with their shields would just push the monster towards me, and neither could shoot it without endangering one of the team. The wight on John tried to stop trying to eat him and refocused his attention on getting to me. He seemed to want to take the most direct route, which was right through Jake and his shield.
I redoubled my efforts in trying to use my new found magic or mental power, whatever you want to call it, to repel the wights. As I pushed harder and harder, I noticed a spot on my chest growing hot. The amulet! Acting on inspiration, I reached under my armor and t-shirt and exposed it to the night. As it thumped against my chest armor, I tried to focus everything I had through it and out to the wights.
It must have helped because the wights stopped once more. It was close, though. I could feel their presence in my soul, and I knew they were on the edge of breaking my tenuous control.
Anger started suffusing me as we engaged in our battle of wills. It roiled up from deep inside me . All the hate and pain creatures like these had caused me came to the front and fueled my will. Gathering the power, I pushed it all into one last desperate command. “Just DIE already!!” I shouted in rage.
The amulet on my chest flared brightly, illuminating the surrounding area in flash of white light that blanked out my NVG, blinding me temporarily. As quickly as it had come, the light dimmed until the amulet was just another shadow on my chest armor.
A wave of exhaustion overtook me and drove me to my knees. I was afraid my command had failed, and one of the wights had reached me. Blinking furiously, I tried to clear my vision of the spots that danced before my eyes. After a second I could make out the pale shapes of the wights lying motionless in the cemetery grass. Money and John were still down also. The rest of the team stood in a semi-circle around me. Looks of shock, surprise and maybe a little fear marked their expressions.
“What the hell was that?” muttered Tommy, his eyes wide with shock.
“I’ll explain later. I promise.” I said in an exhausted voice. “Right now, we need to see to Money and John. Petey, can you please remove the heads from these two. I don’t want to take the chance they may just wake up.”
Petey regarded me with a stoic expression on his face for a moment before nodding and reaching over his shoulder to retrieve his battle axe.
Lori was crouched over Money. “How is she?” I asked as I tried to struggle to my feet.
“She has a pulse, and I don’t see any bleeding. That’s about all I can tell you right now,” she replied somberly.
I looked over to where John laid. Jake and Tommy both knelt beside him. “Same here boss,” came Jake’s voice from the darkness.
Several meaty thunks from Petey’s axe later and we were headed back to the Suburbans, supporting our unconscious friends as best we could.
Alex ran over as we approached the cemetery gate. He stopped abruptly, taking in the sight of us carrying two of our own. “W...What the hell happened?” he asked in a shocked tone.
“Wights,” I said curtly as I trudged tiredly along behind my guys. “Two of them.”
“Oh, crap,” said Alex, his face going pale. His eyes locked on the two limp forms of my Dreadnoughts. “Are they…?” he started.
“No” interrupted Lori as we got to the vehicles. “Just unconscious.”
Alex nodded his head in relief. “Did you get the wights or do I need to get some backup over here?”
The team all seemed to be looking at me out of the corner of their eyes as I responded. “We got ‘em. All we need is cleanup.” I said tiredly.
“I only heard three shots,” said Alex in puzzlement. “How’d you manage to kill two wights with only three shots”?
I pondered what to tell him for a few seconds as the team loaded up Money and John. “Come by the office after the cleanup crew is situated. I’ll explain to everyone all at once.”
Alex stared at me for a moment like he was going to complain, but the look on my face must have convinced him otherwise. “I’ll be there in a little while.”
I nodded my thanks and turned to Lori. “Can you call Doc Brown and have him meet us at the office. My gut’s saying they’ll recover, but we need to get them checked out.”
She just nodded and pulled out her phone.
7
Ahriman staggered suddenly as he felt the magical life force imbued to his two children, snuffed out simultaneously. He’d felt the death of multitudes of his creations over the centuries, but to feel the existence of two powerful undead wink out in an instant, spoke of a powerful cleric. He did not think a priest of such power even existed in this age. That left only one culprit, the wearer of the amulet.
It seemed the power of this mortal was growing quickly. That, or he was beginning to understand the power of the amulet. That being the case, it became even more imperative that he recover his treasure as soon as possible.
He looked down at the two creations kneeling on the floor in front of him. The ghoul’s he’d sent to retrieve the amulet had failed. They brought back the corpses as penance. It had been insufficient. He retrieved his power from the ghouls, rendering them instantly to dust. Almost as an afterthought, he infused the two corpses in front of him with the power he had retrieved. It healed the physical injuries and placed the corpses in a state of suspended animation. In this way, he’d been able to keep them in case of need. Waste not, want not, after all.
Ahriman congratulated himself on his forethought now. Since the power available to him in his weakened condition seemed insufficient to taking the amulet by force, He would use guile instead. It was time for man and wife to be reunited.
++++
“They’ll live, but they’re going to be out for awhile.” Said the Doc, a couple of hours later. “The touch of a wight is serious business. It’s going to take physical therapy and retraining to bring them back up to where they were.”
I nodded in agreement. I’d heard of the wight’s power. Not only did they suck the energy out of you, but they also seemed to drain your skills and abilities. It was probably going to take months of conditioning and tactical training before I could let them into the action again. “Thanks, Doc,” I said, reaching out to shake his hand. “They’ll get everything they need.”
I watched him leave the ready room before turning to face the rest of my people. Alex was standing off to the side. All eyes were focused on me. Facial expressions ranged from tired to angry. Tommy started things off.
“What the hell boss? Humans can’t control undead this side of a priest with serious mojo. You get religion all the sudden?” He asked in a puzzled tone.
I shook my head as I reached into my shirt and withdrew the amulet around my neck. I studied it briefly before letting it fall to rest outside my t-shirt. “You’ve all heard the story of how I got this. Apparently, it’s more than just a bauble. According to Siobhan, It’s a very powerful talisman, probably used by some ancient necromancer. It appears that it gives me a little ability to control undead.”
“A little?” Said Tommy in exasperation. “Dude you put down two wights for the count. That’s more than a little.”
“Which brings up another point.” Said Jake, anger clearly written on his face. “Why the hell did you put us in danger when you could have handled it all by your little self.”
My anger rose to meet Jake’s at his accusation. I stood up slowly and our eyes locked. “Do you really think I’d endanger the crew like that if I knew I had that ability? Do you honestly believe I wouldn’t have said anything about it beforehand if I knew what kind of juice I had?” I said through gritted teeth.
Jake and I continued to eyeball each other for a few more seconds before Jake’s eyes dropped to consider his shoelaces. “Naw, I guess not,” he mumbled. “It was damned creepy though boss. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when you told that zombie in the bar to stop, and it obeyed you. I just shook it off. Then you not only command, but destroy not one, but two wights at the same
time? I figured you had to be hiding something.”
I nodded at Jake somberly. “I shook off the zombie thing too. I figured it was just a coincidence or something.” I said with a sigh. “I was talking to Siobhan last night, though, and her fingers came in contact with the amulet. She said it was very powerful.”
Lori put her hand on her face, trying to conceal a shit eating grin. A couple of titters sounded around the room. “Okay, what?” I asked in exasperation.
“Don’t you keep that trinket under your shirt?” Lori asked with wide eyes. “What was Siobhan doing with her hand under your shirt Dale?
My face grew hot at the cheesy looks I was getting from the crew. Alex winked and nodded like he’d had a suspicion confirmed. “None of your business smartass.” I had snorted at Lori before a chuckle escaped me. I was embarrassed about Siobhan and me, but I was also grateful that the tension level in the room had dropped back down to acceptable levels.
