Nodding Hadad pushed Otis up against the wall, “Get on your knees please.” As Otis dropped to his knees, Hadad saw Athos’ thin line of defenders on the drawbridge below. Ignoring the sight for a moment, he said, “May God and the angels above take you into heaven.”
Otis smiled, “Amen.” He continued smiling as time seemed to come to a virtual standstill. Hadad raised his Spatha over his head and brought it down with all his strength. Otis marveled as the moment seemed to stretch into eternity, and then the blackness took him.
Constan had just finished off another of the damned when Hadad yelled, “Sir, permission to get down to the gate and let Athos and his survivors in?”
In between raspy breaths, Constan said, “Aye, save the lad.”
Hadad saluted, turned and ran for the tower. For the moment the tidal wave of undead had abated. Constan placed his hands on his hips and nodded as he worked on catching his breath. His face had become red as a fresh radish. He was tired and drained.
Hadad emerged from the tower and ran for the gate. As he moved around the last building between himself and the gate he saw three men. One of the men he recognized as Zahid was sitting on the ground clutching his face. The other two men stood nearby in a protective stance over him.
Hadad decided to ignore them and walk up to the gate. Zahid, noticing his approach, challenged him, “What do you think you're doing?”
Hadad looked to Zahid and then the two men next to him and wondered, Is he bit? Should I tell him what is going on outside? He’s always hated Athos. Hadad made his decision, “Athos and the survivors of his unit are fighting on the draw bridge we need to open the gate and let them in.”
Zahid removed the hands from his face. Hadad saw that his nose wasn’t bitten it was smashed, “No I forbid it, we mustn’t endanger the city by opening the gate.”
“Sir, the Tourmarches has authorized me to open the gate and save Athos’ unit. They are fighting and dying right now just a few feet away from us.”
“I don’t care what that goat herder wants, you’ll listen to me!” Zahid yelled in a high pitched voice.
“I’m sorry sir, it’s not your decision to make.” Conversation finished, Hadad began walking around the trio.
Zahid snapped, “Kill him.”
The two guardsmen drew their Spathas and moved toward Hadad. Shocked Hadad stood numbly for a moment. That moment nearly cost him his life as the first man swung his Spatha at his head. Hadad ducked under the swing and then lunged at the man placing his left shoulder into the pit of his stomach.
The man gasped as all the air went out of his lungs. As they landed on the ground, Hadad saw movement out of the left corner of his eye and rolled to the right. The other guardsmen’s Spatha was in an arc heading for where his back was. Unable to check his swing the Spatha cut deeply into the guardsmen’s prone companion.
Hadad sprang to his feet and drew his Spatha as Zahid cursed, “Seven hells! Must I do everything?”
The guardsmen swung at Hadad with an overhead downward arc. Hadad raised his Spatha, and the two blades came together with a high pitched ringing noise. Hadad then followed up with a quick leftward sweep of his blade at the guardsmen’s middle section. Another blade blocked the killing blow, “You’ll die for this betrayal Hadad!”
Hadad jumped back to avoid the guardsmen’s counter attack, “Betrayal? Our fellow Skutatoi are dying right now because you won’t open the damn gate!”
Zahid sneered, “They aren’t guardsmen! We should have been placed in charge of defending Damascus not that lowborn son of a rutting whore Constan!”
“Does it matter who is in charge? If we don’t win tonight all of us are going to be meat at the bottom of a damned stomach!” Furious, Hadad ducked under Zahid’s next swing and with an upthrust disemboweled the guardsmen. The man cried out and dropped to his knees trying to hold his guts in.
Hadad’s arm quivered as he withdrew the blade, I’ve never killed a living human being before. Turning to locate Zahid, he was brought to his knees by a piercing pain in his back. He cried out in agony and fell to his knees.
Zahid walked around to face Hadad as Hadad wavered on his knees, “You should have remained loyal and stuck with your own.”
Hadad smiled and shook his head, “If remaining with my own means cowering behind a wall while my comrades fight and die, no thanks.”
Zahid’s facial features contorted and his eyes shrank to slits, “As you wish, cur!” Zahid swung his Spatha at Hadad’s neck. The blade whizzed through the air. Hadad fell backward to avoid the swing. He then hooked his foot around Zahid’s left leg and pulled with all his remaining strength. Zahid toppled to the ground with a surprised, “Ofhh!”
Ignoring the piercing pain in his back, Hadad sat up, drew his ax, and brought it down into Zahid’s foot. Zahid cried out in agony as the blade of the ax bit deeply into his left foot. Zahid countered with a clumsy swing of his Spatha. From a sitting position, the large blade is hard to wield. Hadad yanked his ax out of Zahid’s foot and blocked the swing.
Hadad then grabbed Zahid’s sword arm with his left hand as he swung his ax with his right. With a sickening smack, Hadad’s ax blade sank deep into Zahid’s gut. Zahid cried out in agony and let go of his Spatha. The blade clattered to the ground as his hands clutched at the wound in his abdomen.
Hadad staggered to his feet and walked toward the barred gate. Each step created a piercing agony in his back. He reached around to feel the wound. His hand felt slick oozing wetness. He brought his hand back in front of him and looked at it. The hand was covered in blood.
The sight of so much blood, his blood, made Hadad feel light headed. He swayed on his feet. Thoughts swirled through his mind, as he focused on putting one foot in front of the other, It would be so easy right now to just lay down and let the darkness take me. Gritting his teeth, he muttered, “Must save my friend.” With a renewed sense of purpose, he pushed the blinding pain into a corner of his mind and completed the journey to the gate.
Hadad reached the gate and pushed up against the bar. He cried out in agony as the pain in his back sliced through everything else. In his mind, there was only the pain. Leaning up against the door he panted trying to catch his breath, “You are a soldier of Rome! Fight through this!
A random thought popped into Hadad’s head, Where did that saying come from? Drawing strength from reserves he didn’t know he had, he pushed against the bar holding the gate shut. The pain in his back screamed, but he ignored it and kept pushing. Ever so slowly the bar inched higher and higher.
As the bar neared the top of the iron bars holding it in place Hadad’s body was wracked by an intense wave of agony. His back throbbed with pain and he screamed. Steeling himself, he put his fading strength into one final effort, and the bar cluttered to the ground. Numb now, he pulled on the gate, and it opened. He took a step and tried to cry out, “Ath-, Ath-, Athos!” After getting the name out of his leaden tongue Hadad collapsed to the ground.
Athos ducked as one of the damned tried to grab his helm. He followed with an upthrust from his Spatha into the bottom of the abomination’s head. As it fell to the ground he thought he heard his name come from behind him, Nikas are you playing games with me?
Before the Nikas personality could respond a massive damned in the armor of an Imperial Tagmata smashed into his shield. Unable to hold his ground Athos took a step back just as the beast attempted to hurl itself into his shield. The undead soldier lost its balance and fell forward. As it did so Athos swung his Spatha down at its neck and severed the head.
Finally having a moment to spare, he stole a glance back toward the gate. It was open. Was that a body laying on the ground? “Fighting withdrawal, the gate is open!” Athos barked.
Athos’ command began slowly stepping back with every opportunity. The damned howled and hurled themselves at the thin line as they retreated. The line wavered but never broke. As they reached the door, it narrowed the amount of real estate the line had to defend, an
d Athos was able to step out of it.
He kneeled over the prone body. Blood covered the lower left portion of their back armor, “That looks like a sword wound.” Athos said, incredulously. Gently he flipped the body over and recognized Hadad. He shook his shoulders gently, taking care not to injure him further, “Hadad? Hadad, it’s Athos. Wake up.”
Hadad groaned, flatulated, and said, “No I don’t need any more wine.”
“We have to get you to a healer. Can you stand? Did Zahid stab you? Where’s he at?”
Athea interrupted, “Now is not a very good time to be playing twenty questions. Would you get him inside the gate so we can retreat and shut it?”
Athos gently picked up Hadad and carried him through the gateway into the city. He spotted an empty wagon in an alleyway next to the gate and placed Hadad in it. Hadad groaned and passed out. As he returned to the gate, he noticed another prone body on the ground.
Flipping the body over he exclaimed, “Zahid! I hope you are rotting in the deepest part of hell where a demon blows a load into your arse daily.” The sound of the Nikas personality laughing hysterically interrupted his train of thought.
“Masterful insult!” An image of the Nikas personality clapping popped into his mind.
Before the conversation in Athos’ head could continue, he heard a scream coming from the direction of the gate. As he looked up one of the surviving shield bearers collapsed to his knees. As Athos sprang to his feet, two of the damned leaped onto the stricken man and sank their teeth into the top of each shoulder.
Athos took a step forward and drew his Spatha. He gripped it with both hands and swung as hard as he could at the undead abomination eating the man’s right shoulder. The Spatha passed through the damned’s head, the unfortunate man’s neck and the former bath attendant munching on the left shoulder as well.
Two heads now consisting of four halves tumbled to the ground along with the head of the formerly living man. As Athos squatted to grab the fallen man’s oversized shield, another of the damned flung itself at him. He slew it cleanly with an upthrust of his Spatha through the bottom of its jaw.
This bought him the moment he needed to heft the immense shield. He turned to Liana and ordered, “Find the bar to the gate. We need to get it closed.” Liana nodded and deftly slipped out of the way of an attacker even as Athea’s gladius penetrated the side of the former priest’s head.
The teaming masses of the undead pressed hard against Athos’ thin line defending the gate. Seeing an opportunity, Fonda directed the horde to cease attacking the walls and to concentrate on the open gate. Heedless of their safety the damned threw themselves at Athos’ line. Wave after wave of the undead slammed into Athos’ faltering line.
Following Fonda’s commands, the horde pressed forward. Despite the Skutatoi slaying dozens in the space of a minute, the dead pushed forward heedless of the danger. The line broke, and the damned entered Damascus. In the ensuing chaos, Athos lined up his survivors in a wide doorway. As the undead hordes poured into the city, his group held on.
Constan, quickly seeing the danger, had gathered up all of the survivors on the wall and brought them down to the streets. Without waiting for orders, they charged into the left and right flank of the damned running up Straight Street. This helped to stem the tide as many of the dead turned and attacked the Skutantoi, but many other still made their way into the city. Damascus belonged to the damned.
Constan directed his signaler to blow a special note on his Cornu. The note, a continuous deep tone went for nearly a minute straight. All over the city children, older women, and men stood up on top of the city’s rooves and began yelling at the damned. They banged on pots and hurled insults.
The noise they created, attracted the damned, hungry for flesh, to the buildings. Next, the people began throwing large rocks at the undead masses gathering below them. Their aim was often poor but it didn’t matter. There were so many of the dead that they couldn’t miss. It wasn’t long before the streets ran purple as hundreds of the damned were slain.
Fonda felt her children dying by the hundreds, “No! This cannot be. They were beaten!” Heedless of her safety she ran onto the drawbridge trying to see what was killing her horde. She directed several stragglers passing by her, mostly those that had injuries that slowed them, to form a line at the end of the drawbridge to guard her back.
She walked into the city and made eye contact with Constan as he commanded the surviving Skutatoi, “Give up and let my children initiate you into our ranks!”
“Fuck that ye unholy bitch. You’ll have to eat me. I’ll keep killing every last one of ye as long as there is a piece of me left to fight, demon spawn.” Constan snarled.
Fonda leered back and quipped, “I think not. Someone as old and stubborn as you will leave a foul taste in my mouth. On the other hand, there is plenty of blood from your soldiers to help wash out your foul taste. Yes, I think I will come feed on you.”
Fonda picked up a Spatha laying in the street and dropped into a fighting stance. Before she could attack Constan, a sound pierced the air that made her blood run cold. From outside the city, the signaller of the Persian Cataphractoi blew the signal to attack.
Recognizing it, Fonda looked around for somewhere to go. There was only one avenue open to her, back outside of the city. She dropped the Spatha whirled around and ran. As she reached the drawbridge, the minions she had left to guard it exploded into a purple mist as the armored horses smashed through them.
Reflexes taking over, she lunged for the moat, now filled to the top with the corpses of her minions. Before she could get clear, a horse smashed into her. The impact spun her around in midair. Out of control now, another rider slammed into her knocking her senseless. This impact catapulted her directly into the moat where the corpses of countless slain damned cushioned her impact.
Fonda lost consciousness on impact. The remaining damned, caught between Constan, Athos, the townspeople, and the Persians were quickly annihilated.
Chapter 37
Dawn September 29th 636, Damascus, Syria Province, Byzantium
Victory
The thunderstorm continued to unleash its fury upon Damascus until the darkness relented. When the pounding rains had subsided, the eastern horizon turned a dull shade of gray. The dawn brought a sense of renewal to Damascus. The torrential downpour had washed away all of the blood that had been spilled during the long night. Constan along with Athos, Damon, Athea, Liana, and Governor Maurice stood on the wall of the city looking east.
Behind them the city celebrated. The surviving members of the 5th Parthica regaled and shared stories of their combat prowess. The children talked about never being afraid of nightmares ever again; they’ll just drop rocks on their heads. The people of Damascus drank and celebrated, rejoicing in the relief that their city had stood against the darkness and triumphed.
Governor Maurice gestured to his servant nearby. The servant came over to the group and bowed his head slightly to the Governor, “Bring me some food to break my fast. I’m famished.” The servant nodded and withdrew. The Governor turned to Constan and asked, “How many remain of the 5th Parthica?”
Constan frowned, “Not many. Athos’ mobile testudo unit of two hundred was nearly wiped out. Of the defenders on the wall barely one in ten survive. About half of the artillery men still draw breath as they didn’t engage in hand to hand fighting until the end. Most of the Persians still live.”
Athos, feeling guilty, interrupted, “I’m sorry about that.”
Constan placed a hand on Athos’ shoulder, “No worries, lad. You did everything right. Sometimes you’re dealt a bad cast of the tallie bones, and you just have to make the best of it that you can. I just don’t see how you could have done more to preserve your command given the odds. If Zahid had let you in, instead of leaving ye to die, the gate would not have been breached. I blame that traitorous bastard.”
With the weight that had been crushing him since the events at the gate lifted
, his shoulders noticeably relaxed. Athea, her arm wrapped around Athos, felt the shift. She drew him into an embrace and smiled up at him, “See, I told you it wasn’t your fault.” Before he could reply, she kissed him.
Damon cleared his throat loudly as the couple renewed their passion, “What about that bastard Farid?”
“And Baltazar,” Liana added.
“That coward Farid was supposed to stand with me on the wall, but he never showed. No one has seen him since before the battle.” Constan said with a disgusted tone in his voice. Sighing loudly, he walked over to Liana and took her hand, “I’m sorry, lass. I know nothing of what happened to Justin, Boulous, Baltazar, and the rest of the folks that went with them.”
Liana nodded. Tears ran down her face, “Now that the damned are defeated can we go look for him?”
“Forgive me, lass, but no. These damned are defeated, but there could be many more.” He gestured at the desert, “Out there. I can’t spare a search party.”
Liana nodded absently and started sobbing as tears came to her eyes, “There, there, lass. He’ll come home to ye. Probably with an army at his back to save us all.”
Liana nodded and smiled, “Thank you.”
Everyone fell silent for several minutes. Finally, Governor Maurice broke the silence, “We will send riders to the rest of Syria. I’ll order everyone out there to seek safety within the walls of Damascus.”
Constan nodded, “Aye if the Emperor can stand against them at Antioch we’ll keep them pinned in Palestinia.”
“With luck, the Egyptian Thema has fared better than we did.” The Governor added.
Constan crossed himself, “God let it be so. Perhaps we can bring this nightmare to an end.”
Chapter 38
Mid-Afternoon September 29th 636, Damascus, Syria Province, Byzantium
Victory
Hadad awoke to the sound of his wife screaming in agony. He opened his eyes and looked over at her. Her fists were clenched, and sweat poured down her brow, How long have I been out? A midwife, Hadad couldn’t remember her name said, “Rima when you feel the pain again push as hard as you can.”
Byzantium Infected Box Set Page 53
