“Do you remember how far that alleyway goes?” Athos asked.
Gor frowned, “No, my father was a merchant, so we lived to the west of the Temple Mount. Much past where we are now, I rarely ventured as the rich did not wish to mingle with the children of the less fortunate. If caught here by a household guard, or a vigil, a beating is the best we could expect.”
“So, if we stray from the obvious path to the Temple Mount from here, we could get lost in a maze of Jerusalem’s back streets and alleyways?” Athos asked.
Gor nodded nervously, “Yes, sir.”
Athos sighed in frustration and turned to Baltazar, “What would you do?”
“Despite the risk of encountering the damned, I think the best choice is to take the road we know leads to the church. If we stray from that path, we could get lost, and never find the church, or even our way out of the city. In addition to the risk of getting lost, we need to be mindful of that fact that we need to make haste and complete the mission before the sun sets. Fighting in these streets once darkness falls will be madness.” Baltazar replied.
“Your words make sense, my friend.” Athos turned and looked at Nasir, “Pass the word, we are turning north and then east back onto the main road. Everyone must be quiet so that we do not attract another damned horde.”
“I will pass the word, Kentarches.” Nasir replied.
Athos emerged from the alleyway onto the street. As Gor had suggested he turned north. Baltazar fell in beside him, and the remainder of the group fell into the same order they had used previously. Nasir and Gor guarded the flanks of the ladies, who stood ready with their slings, to engage any damned that appeared. Sharven and Martun walked abreast just to the rear of the three slingers. They were followed by the rest of Jerry’s men, and then finally Jerry himself. Their new addition, Daisy walked between Nasir and Maarika. Her yellow brown eyes looked nervously about, and her nose twitched as she silently crept forward.
The group walked in silence for a few hundred feet, then turned east. The Temple Mount loomed in the sky above them as they drew close to the center of the city. Without warning, the silence was interrupted by a piercing shriek. As Athos looked up to find the source of the noise, he was tackled to the ground by a screaming apparition that consisted of boney arms, putrid skin, stringy gray hair, and sharp teeth hunting for his flesh.
Even as Athos was forced to the ground from the sudden unexpected weight of the damned, her shriek was taken up by dozens of others nearby. The damned lady on Athos back, noticed Baltazar drawing his weapon. She ignored Athos and began to scramble to her feet. She growled as she turned to face Baltazar and barred her teeth. Before she could take any action, a slung bullet impacted the side of her skull sending her tumbling to the ground. Free of the weight on his back, Athos groaned in relief and began using his arms to push himself to his feet. As he did so, Baltazar spotted another shrieking damned that had flung herself off the roof of the villa to their right and plunged through the air toward the pair.
“What in God’s name?” Baltazar said, as he holstered his ax and drew his Spatha from the sheathe on his left hip.
As the shrieking damned lady came into range of his blade, he sent her to the afterlife with an upward stroke that sliced through the bottom of her chin. His Spatha stroke, continued on until it exited the top of her head, flaying open the front of her face and exposing the bone and tissue below.
Dozens more of this shrieking group of damned consisting of nothing but elderly females flung themselves from the rooftops of the villas surrounding the boulevard onto the group. From the back Jerry barked, “Raise your shield and mind the sky!”
Nasir and Gor, lifted their shields above their heads in an attempt to fend off the shrieking damned trying to reach Athea, Liana, and Maarika. With his right hand, Gor drew his Spatha and began dispatching the nearby stringy haired foes before they struck his shield. Nasir, unable to raise his right arm above the shoulder thanks to his old spear wound, had to fend them off with his shield before killing them with a downward stroke of his ax.
As the women around her worked to dispatch as many of the attacking damned as they could, Daisy barred her teeth and stood poised to leap should any land close to her. As the sky continued to rain damned, two of Jerry’s men went down under grasping hands and sharp teeth. As the damned fed, their screams echoed off the nearby stone buildings.
Baltazar turned to Athos, who had just managed to get back to his feet and said, “We’ve got to get out from under these damned hags or we’re finished.”
Athos, sidestepped a lady that had leaped head first from the villa roof above him said, “I agree. Do we try to press on, or push our way indoors to get some cover?”
The damned female’s smashed head first into the cobblestones that formed the street. The bones of her skull caved in with a sickening crunch. Baltazar, deflecting away another old lady with his shield said, “It’s literally raining damned. We need to get inside.”
“Even without Fonda to lead them, the damned slowly seem to be getting smarter on their own.” Athos said.
He looked to his right and noticed two oaken double doors just a few feet away. The stout doors had a relief of Abraham on the mount with a dagger raised above his son Isaac. The boy was laid out on a sacrificial altar. An angel was reaching to stay Abraham’s wrist before he plunged the dagger into the boy. As Athos pushed on the door with his sword arm, another damned, this time a middle-aged man, plunged from the roof just above him and tackled him to the ground.
Athos, who had been driven onto his back by the weight of the man, took a quick breath and raised his head. His vision filled with clicking teeth and snarling rotten breath, as the damned atop him lunged forward going for the soft unprotected flesh of his neck. Athos tried to raise his arms to push the snarling damned away, but they were pinned beneath him. Realization dawned on him in the fraction of a second that transpired and he began a prayer, “God please-“
His prayer was abruptly cut off when the damned’s head jerked to the right as a sling bullet struck, crushing bone and brain matter alike. As Athos looked into the sky Athea’s face appeared and he said, “An angel.”
Athea smiled as she offered a hand to pull Athos to his feet, “No, not an angel. Try to be more careful and not get yourself killed.”
“Of course, dear.” Athos replied.
Baltazar shouted as he fended off another damned that plunged toward him from the rooftop above and yelled, “Athos, stop fucking around and get us inside!”
As Baltazar finished the last word, his Spatha connected with the damned’s head in a perfectly timed swing. Athos turned and grasped the iron door ring embedded in the door with the relief of Abraham’s sacrifice and pulled for all he was worth, it didn’t budge, “Fuck.” He snarled in frustration.
Another of Jerry’s men screamed as he went down under a torrent of grasping fingers and sharp teeth. Athos looked around desperate for another possibility to get them off the street. His eyes landed on an open window just to the left of where Baltazar stood. He turned to Athea and said, “Stay with me, love.”
Athos heard the screeching cry of one of the females from above and looked up. The old lady stopped her unholy wail, and smiled at Athos, “What the hell?” Athos asked.
“What the hell indeed.” The damned replied, “What do you think of my girls?”
As Athos opened his mouth to respond the elderly damned disappeared from sight, as a sling bullet whistled through the spot that her head had just occupied a moment before. Athea exclaimed, “Almost had her.” Striking Athos on the rump she added, “Get us inside. Now!”
Athos threw her a quick salute and said, “Yes, ma’am!”
Quickly crossing the street. He brought his Spatha blade down upon the head of a damned that had just landed behind Baltazar unnoticed. Athos’ friend had been occupied with a group of three damned in front of him. Athos reached, the open window whose bottom sill was about even with his waist. Selecting cautio
n over foolhardiness, he banged on the side of the window with his Spatha loudly three times. The noise caused the damned on the roof tops above them to shriek in unison. Daisy joined the cacophony of voices with a long mournful sounding howl.
The sound Athos had just made failed to draw any damned attacks from the room on the other side of the window. He held his shield up toward the window and turned to ensure his back was covered. It wasn’t as he was pulled to the ground by another damned who decided to use him to break its dive off the rooftop above.
His assailant, one of the bony old ladies, lacked the weight to force Athos completely to the ground. He was able to absorb the impact by dropping to one knee. The hideously decomposed woman, wrapped her boney arms around his torso, and pulled herself close, looking for exposed skin to sink her black rotting teeth into.
Before she could find the vulnerable spot between his armor and helmet. A gladius blade was thrust into the base of her neck. Using her other hand, Athea pulled the limp corpse off Athos’ back and said, “Get moving, soldier.”
Athos got back to his feet and with his shield in front of him, stepped over the window sill into the room beyond. Inside the villa, the sounds of the shrieking damned on the rooftops above was muffled. The window had led into the villa’s foyer. To his left stood a set of double doors, that led back out to the street. They had been barred shut.
Another set of double doors about twenty feet away, sat opposite the first set across a foyer. The walls of the foyer were decorated with tapestries that depicted various scenes from the Bible’s old testament including, Adam and Eve, the Tower of Babel, Noah’s Ark, Moses, and Joshua. Hanging from the ceiling above was a silken tapestry with the Star of David on a white background. Sunlight streamed in through the gaps in this second set of double doors. That second set of doors must lead outside into the villa’s courtyard. Athos thought to himself.
Athos, seeing that there was no damned lurking in the room. Turned to his left and removed the bar that held the double doors in place. As he did so, Athea climbed over the window sill and joined him inside the villa. She turned to face the open window and said, “Maarika, Liana. In here.”
Maarika and Liana finished up the shots they were taking, and turned to look in the direction of Athea’s voice. They saw her gesturing through the open window. The two ladies glanced about to make sure they were not about to be tackled to the ground, and took off in a run toward the open doorway.
Athos, moved back outside and took up a defensive position to the left of the double doors, and Baltazar, noticing the open doors after dispatching another damned. Fell into place on the right side of the doorway. Daisy, seeing Maarika and Liana moving toward the open doorway, ran through their legs into the room.
As Maarika and Liana cleared the threshold of the doorway. Nasir and Gor began backing toward it with their shields held in a defensive posture. The damned, continued to fling themselves off the rooftops above. As the two men slowly backed up, several of the undead were deflected off their shields as they plunged from above. Using their axes, the two men dispatched several of the undead horrors as they executed a textbook fighting withdrawal toward the door.
Once the two men cleared the threshold of the door. They moved across the room and took up defensive positions in front of the unbarred door that lead to the courtyard beyond. Athea, and Liana went and stood on either side of the open window that Athos had originally used to gain entry and employed their slings to deadly effect against the damned in the street.
Next to enter the relative safety of the room was Martun and Sharven. They were followed by the three other surviving members of Jerry’s Kontoubernion. Jerry paused on the threshold and said, “Everyone is in except you two. What are your orders, Kentarches?”
In between kills, Athos stole a quick 360-degree glance around him. The street had become clogged with damned, as the shrieking banshees above had drawn all the damned from a several blocks radius, “Into the room for now. We’ve got to get off this street.”
“Yes, sir.” Jerry said as he ducked into the room.
Athos and Baltazar took a step back toward each other in front of the double doors. They held their shields up with their left arms to keep the horde that pressed against them at bay. They had sheathed their Spathas and switched back to their axes as the overhead danger was now limited by the overhanging roof above them.
Three damned, working together, simultaneously lunged at Athos. He brought his shield up to block one, while he brought his ax around in a side swing to end the second life of another. This left one of the damned uncovered to bite him. This damned, had once been an attractive young woman of perhaps sixteen summers when she was turned. Before she could threaten Athos, her head jerked back and she collapsed to the ground in a heap. Athea smiled at her kill and thought, Stay away from him you bastards.
Simultaneously, Athos was able to deflect another of the three damned away, this one was a middle-aged man in the livery of a household slave. This left his ax hand free, to cleave the third damned in the head. As this one collapsed into a heap in front of him, he turned his head and yelled at Baltazar, “Get inside.”
Baltazar, with problems of his own, dispatched two damned in quick succession, took a breath, and replied, “No, you go first. I’m better at fighting alone than you are.”
As two damned quickly took the place of the pair that had been slain in front of him Athos said, “That’s an order, Dekanos, get your arse inside!”
Baltazar ducked under grasping arms as he brought his ax up into the bottom of their owner’s chin. Another damned reaching toward his right shoulder, took a sling bullet to the forehead as Liana protected her man, “Athos, stop trying to be a hero.”
“All right, together then. We both take a step back into the doorway. Use our shields to push these bastards back a step, and then we step into the room. Agreed?” Athos said.
“Sounds good to me, sir.” Baltazar replied.
Both men had to take a moment to defeat the damned in front of them. Bone, brains, and purple mist flew as the two men steadily cleaved into the skulls of the damned that assailed them. Finally seeing an opportunity Athos yelled, “Now. Take a step back!”
The two men raised their shields up in a defensive posture and took a step back into the doorway. Feeling each other’s presence, they thrust their shields forward in unison to push the damned back a step. They then quickly took another step back as Sharven and Martun each slammed one of the door’s shut. Gor, with the bar already in his hand, quickly dropped it into place.
Athos, hastily took stock of the situation in the room. Seeing the doorway that led to the courtyard closed, but unbarred he said, “We need to find a way to block that door in case they start dropping into the courtyard.”
As he spoke the words, the damned in the street began banging on the double doors that had just been slammed shut. Grasping arms reached through the open window that Athea and Liana had been using to employ their slings. The pair of ladies took a step back as Maarika intervened and slew one of the damned with her sling. Athea quickly grasped the shutters and slammed them shut, while Liana located the bar for the shutters and dropped it into place securing it.
Within moments, the sounds of the damned banging on the window shutters was added to the rhythm of them pounding on the door. Athos made eye contact with Nasir as he said, “Nasir, peek into the courtyard and see if any of the bastards are out there. We need to break contact with them if we can and that’s the only direction we have to go. This noise is going to bring the entire city down upon us if we don’t get away from it soon.”
Nasir opened the door that led to the villa’s courtyard and peered through. Seeing nothing but a bubbling fountain and the overgrown gardens in the courtyard, he opened the door further. Again, seeing nothing, he cautiously took a step into the courtyard. With his shield raised to ward off any aerial attacks, he took another forward step into the courtyard.
It was at that moment that
a large damned, dressed in the tattered rags of a common laborer, chose to launch himself off the roof toward Nasir’s back. A moment before the damned crashed into Nasir, the smell of his decomposed rot grew in Nasir’s nostrils. As Nasir began to whirl about, the large man landed on his back. The impact drove Nasir to the ground and his chin struck the stone of the courtyard with a dull crunching noise.
As Nasir screamed from the sudden pain of the broken bone. The large damned atop him tugged at his helmet in an attempt to get it off. As his vision filled with stars from the intense pain, a second damned, this one a smaller male dressed in the tattered remains of a red silken robe, landed on its feet in front of him.
As Nasir attempted to roll onto his side to get the damned laborer off his back. Red silken robe advanced toward him with clicking teeth and malevolent intent. Maarika, hearing Nasir’s scream, whirled around and saw him in the courtyard through the open door. Sharven and Martun drew their axes and advanced into the courtyard as she started to run toward the courtyard. She didn’t have a clear field of fire.
The large damned atop Nasir continued to pull at his helmet. As his leather chin strap was pulled against his smashed and bleeding chin, he screamed. Sharven reached Nasir first. The large damned, sensing the newcomer’s presence turned to face him. It was the last thing it ever did as Sharven’s ax blade bit deeply into his forehead.
Martun, seeing the smaller damned in the red robe running toward Nasir, stepped in front of him and raised his shield to block the oncoming attacker. Unbeknownst to him, two more damned on the red tiled roof above, jumped off the rooftop of the villa and plunged downward toward Martun’s unprotected back. The first impact drove Martun to his knees, and the second damned impacting on him a moment later, pushed him forward to the ground.
Luckily for him, unlike Nasir’s chin, his helmeted forehead impacted the ground first. Though his head was directly protected by his helm the force of the impact sent a tingling twinge down his neck. As the two damned that had brought Martun to the ground scrambled to find exposed skin to bite. The red robed damned leaped over the wrestling tangle of bodies and landed on his feet in front of Nasir.
Byzantium Infected Box Set Page 94
