Cavern of the Blood Zombies (2011) (17 page)

He was pretty battered from our fight and didn’t move even when I made several attempts to pull him to his feet. He can’t be that bad off, I told myself. I certainly hadn’t beaten him to death—not that I would have cared if I had. I grabbed him by the arm, yelled “Up!” and slung him over my back.

Fats was deadweight and of course extremely heavy. His bulk pressed into me as I spat out blood from our fight. I shook my head and cursed his ancestors as I walked with his corpulence burdening my shoulders.

Fortunately the stone corridor was not very long and as soon as I left the area with the twisting vines, I could see the cliff. Neither Uncle Three nor Panzi was there; it looked as if they had gone back to look for a way out. I walked to the end of the stone corridor where the sacrificial platform was. Just as I was about to put Fats down and take a rest, I saw Uncle Three climbing out of an opening in the cliff not too far away.

I was afraid he might not see me so I waved and shouted, “Uncle Three, I’m here!”

He caught sight of me and almost broke into a smile, but then his expression changed and he pointed towards my back. I turned to see Fats sitting up. Behind him and out of his sight, the green-eyed fox-corpse sat watching me with his blank and heartless stare.

It was impossible for me to turn away from that green gaze but although I was frozen in what was almost a trance, for some reason my thoughts were still very clear. The taste of copper in my mouth was very strong and I wondered if I had swallowed the piece from the belt after all. Perhaps somehow it was offering its protection.

When I heard the sounds of Uncle Three and the others rushing to my rescue, I knew immediately that this was a mistake. They had not yet felt the black magic that this fox-corpse could wield, and so had no idea of the danger we were in. If they blundered over to help, something terrible was bound to happen. I wanted to yell a warning to them, but it was as if something were stuck in my throat. Even with my mouth wide open, not a sound emerged.

But then I realized I could still move my hands. I made a gesture of two guns with my hands, each of them pointing at the head of the fox-corpse. My heart was screaming, Panzi, you have to be smart just this once. If you can’t interpret this simple piece of body language, then you should just give up and eat shit for the rest of your life.

A gunshot crackled behind me and the head of the green-eyed fox-corpse exploded before my eyes. My mouth was still wide open from my failed warning attempt, and liquid from the corpse splashed right in my face.

I began to vomit; this stuff tasted worse than shit and I threw up everything but my intestines and stomach lining. I turned and saw Panzi clutching his wounds with one hand and making an OK gesture with the other. I cursed silently and wiped the fluid from the corpse off my face with my sleeve.

There was a fair amount of distance between where Uncle Three was and my position on the sacrificial platform. The terrain was covered with vines and could have been the death of him, but Uncle Three was quick and clever. He threw stones to distract the vines and then rushed safely past them.

Soon he climbed on top of the sacrificial platform. He was extremely worried about me and came quickly to be sure I was all right but as soon as he got within smelling range, he frowned and gagged. Annoyed by his fastidiousness, I ran to him and gave him a bear hug, which made him so nauseated that he almost passed out.

Since he and Big Kui were both safe, I needed to make them account for their abandonment of me and asked, “Uncle Three, how could you guys have run away to leave me alone in that tomb? You scared the hell out of me! Why did you leave me by myself in such a dreadful place?”

In response, my uncle reached over and slapped Big Kui on the head. “I told this fucking guy not to touch anything but he wouldn’t listen.” Then he told me everything that had happened from the time that they disappeared.

They had found another opening in the wall of the ear chamber in that main tomb. In most cases where there is a wall opening in an ancient tomb, there’s usually a secret room behind it. Naturally they didn’t know that all the trapdoors hidden in this tomb opened downward, but Uncle Three was a sharp guy and discovered the ruse with a glance. Big Kui moved too quickly with too little thought, and before Uncle Three could stop him, he pressed the button of the trap. They fell down one flight into the Western Zhou dynasty tomb, just as we had earlier.

The plot got more and more involved from that point. Uncle Three made it sound so outrageous and confusing as he went on that I could make no sense of his story and soon begged him to stop telling me anything at all.

“You better believe me,” Uncle Three said. “Take a look at what I found.” He pulled a black box out of his bag—with a “kacha” noise, the box magically turned into a machine gun.

I had done some research on guns, and knew this gun was famous—it was a 9 mm Ayers folding machine gun with bullets the size of a cigarette, very light and easy to use.

Uncle Three said that while they were in the tunnel, they had found several bodies which had been carrying explosives, as well as this gun. The whole place was covered with bullet holes—it looked as though one hell of a battle had raged there.

I double-checked the gun and was puzzled. It looked as if that group of grave robbers had been equipped with sophisticated weapons, or at least much more so than we were. Who they could have been, these people who went in but did not come back out? Could they have all died in here? If not, where were they now?

As my thoughts ran on, I leaned back against the sacrificial platform. Who knew that this stone stage that appeared so solid couldn’t bear my weight? Before my entire body had pressed against it, the platform suddenly sank halfway into the ground.

Thinking we had triggered a trap, all of us quickly ducked down. The next thing we knew a series of noises came from below our feet, ending with a loud crash near the end of the platform.

We went to take a look and found a huge hole in the gargantuan tree that stood behind the stone platform. From the hole there appeared a mammoth bronze coffin, fixed in place with chains which had been attached to the largest tree branch and then wrapped several times around the coffin.

Uncle Three was speechless and then with a sigh of relief said, “So here is the real coffin.”

“Holy shit!” Big Kui cried. “A coffin this big must be really valuable. Our trip hasn’t been completely in vain!”

Uncle Three slapped him on his head and said, “Valuable?! Stop thinking about goddamn money all the time. Even if this thing was worth something, you still wouldn’t be able to move it out of here. There’s one inner coffin and one outer coffin involved here—not a simple casket. Damn you, don’t always make me lose face with your greed and stupidity.”

Big Kui scratched his head and dared not speak again. I looked closely, feeling something was wrong, and remarked to Uncle Three, “This is strange. Coffins of common people usually are nailed shut because nobody expects them to be opened again—but look. The traps placed in the platform seemed to have been put there to help us locate this. Could it be that the occupier of this grave wanted someone to open his coffin? Plus, you see here, these tightly wrapped chains don’t seem intended to keep the coffin in place but to keep whatever was inside it from getting out.”

Uncle Three nodded and we looked at each other questioningly. Could another monster be inside this coffin? Should we open it or leave it alone?

Uncle Three spat and decided, “My guess is everything that’s valuable must be here in this coffin. If we leave now, then wouldn’t our trip be pointless? So what if there’s a monster in there? We have guns and explosives. If there’s something in there, we’ll fight the fucking thing!”

I nodded, and Uncle Three continued, “Besides, it’s not likely now that we’ll be able to get out the same way we came in. Nearly all of the cave openings on these cliffs will lead us to the tunnel maze again. To leave from one of them will take us forever. Our best hope is to climb from here.”

We raised our heads and saw the crevice on the cavern’s ceiling where moonbeams streamed through; what they revealed looked bleak and dreary. Uncle Three pointed to the giant tree. “You see, the top of this tree is very close to the ceiling. It has many branches, which should make it easy for us to climb it. Look at all of these vines that have grown as high as the top of this cave—they make a natural ladder.”

“Master Three, what nonsense is this? This is a man-eating tree,” Panzi argued. “Isn’t climbing it the same thing as committing suicide?”

Uncle Three laughed. “This is a hydra-cypress. I’ve already thought this through earlier. Don’t you see how the vines won’t grow on the stones here? That’s because this is Tianxin rock, which repels the hydra-cypress and its vines. If we coat ourselves with the dust from these stones, I guarantee we will climb unharmed and everything will proceed smoothly without a hitch.”

“Will it really work?” Big Kui whimpered.

Uncle Three stared at him and I was sure he was going to slap Big Kui on the head one more time but instead he muttered, “Okay, shit—let’s put some on and find out!”

Without another word, we scurried into action. With Fats on Big Kui’s back and Uncle Three supporting Panzi, I shouldered our equipment and took a look back at the cave, thinking, We’re all safe, but what about Poker-face? Uncle Three knew what was on my mind and assured me, “Menyouping can take care of himself—don’t you worry.”

I nodded, realizing I was the last man on earth to worry about Poker-face. He was much savvier than I was, and he seemed to possess supernatural powers. If there was any need for concern on anyone’s behalf, he should be worrying about me.

Holding a gun, I led the way as we slowly reached the stone platform. A moment ago as we ran down the steps, we didn’t notice that the entire platform was supported by huge boulders of Tianxin rock, so enormous that I couldn’t figure out how they were brought in from outside.

Finally we reached the hole in the tree, and the giant bronze coffin stood before us. It was at least two and a half meters long, with ancient inscriptions engraved all over it.

We were all dead silent as if we were reluctant to disturb the occupant of this coffin. Uncle Three took out a crowbar and knocked on the surface, producing a flat, dull thud from inside, which made us realize it was absolutely crammed with objects. Uncle Three knew I had some knowledge of ancient inscriptions and asked me, “Can you read what’s written on here?”

I shook my head and replied, “I don’t understand the specifics, but I am sure the owner of the tomb is the one we have been looking for. The script on this coffin probably provides an outline of his life. It looks like he died before turning fifty without having fathered any children. The scenario in which he passed away is the same as I had read earlier. He died sitting like a Buddhist monk before the Emperor of the State of Lu. All the other texts are probably about his general life.”

Uninterested in the personages and culture of the State of Lu, I scanned the inscriptions quickly.

“What do those words mean?” Big Kui asked. I took a look and saw the word
Open
in the middle of the coffin. Then there were other words that were bigger and more eye-catching than the others, which I knew indicated a date. “This should mark the date that the coffin was placed here, but I can’t read the words so don’t know what date it is,” I explained.

While I examined the inscriptions, Uncle Three looked for the best way to open the coffin. He shook the chains and found they were all as thick as his thumb. After so many years of wear and tear, most of them were no longer in good shape and basically served only a decorative purpose.

Motioning to me to step back, my uncle scolded, “Stop wasting time with those inscriptions. Check them out after we open the coffin.”

He had barely finished his sentence when the coffin began to shake, with a muffled noise coming from inside. At first I thought I was imagining things, and was about to ask the others if they heard something as well. Then suddenly there was still more quaking; I heard the noise again and knew it was real this time. My heart stopped for a second and I thought, Shit! Something terrible is trying to get out of there.