Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel (27 page)

Pizarro
’s head
reeled away in horror at his
friend’s
request
, but he also knew he had to grant him this final
request, grant him his
dignity
.
F
or the first time in his life,
Pizarro
felt speechless
and A
lmargo could not help but
laugh.

“It seems I
’ll never
get
the chance to be rich after all,
”
the old soldier
tried to keep his eyes on
Pizarro
. That second h
is laugh turned into a choked and gurgling cry
as he clutched hold of his stomach.

Dark
veins had begu
n to traverse up his forearm and, as another jolt hit him
hard
, the old soldier half coughed and half wretched. When he spat on the ground, it was
clearly
laced with
his own
bright
red
blood.

“Please s
ir,” he whisper
ed. “Do it now
...before
it’s too late.
”
He dropped his gaze
and stared at the ground
,
and then
a moment later dropped down to his knees
.

Tears rimmed
Pizarro
’s
eyes,
but w
ith a flick
of his arm
,
he
produced the
thin
blade
by his wrist
.
He bent over and gently kissed
the crown of
Almargo
’s head, then placed his hand atop of where he had just kissed, pausing
momentarily
as if in benediction. He drew a shaky breath. His thick fingers curled inwards and grasped a handful of his friend’s scalp.
W
ith a quick jab
and an unbidden cry of anguish,
Pizarro
sent
the sharp steel
through
the temple of
the only
true
friend he had ever known
.

Almargo’s body
twitched
hard once, violently as the connection between his mind and body was
instantly
severed, then he became
limp
and loose
.
Pizarro
laid him
gently
and with great care
down on the ground
, crossing
Almargo’s
arms
over
his chest in
sign of
reverence
.
Th
e
old man
was
n
o
t
really
a man of the Church
,
but
Pizarro
still
took
the
time to say
a few words
,
somehow
to
help him find
his way
to a better place
.

As he stood and turned
,
he saw t
hat Minco had
silently
returned and had b
een
watching
the whole
proceeding
.
The Spaniard cursed u
nder his breath
, feeling himself flush for this show of weakness
.

“I
a
m sorry,” Minco said to t
he Spaniard
and
Pizarro
could see that the Incan felt
some genuine compassion.

Pizarro
was lost in his own hell of regret. “
The old fool should have been more careful.
If he
had been,
then he would still be alive.
”

Minco
watched as
Pizarro
sped away
, not
once
looking back
to the body of his man. Without another
word,
he joined the rest of the survivors. The Incan took a
last
, measuring across
the ravine at the
army
amassed on the other side
. H
e watched as they moved off
and knew
they would be
search
ing for another way across
.

If the god’s were with them, i
n
less than
an hour
,
they would
reach
the gates of Huacas and the last part of the mission would be
there
,
waiting for them.

17
- The City
of
the
Snake

On the far side of the
ravine,
they found i
t was the quietest it had been for days.
And for that
,
t
he
y
at least took a little bit of
comfort
, for
they
did
n
o
t run into anymore of th
os
e
hungry
beasts on the roa
d to Huacas.
Far sooner than they expected
they
reached the
outskirts
of the city
,
but the
sight before them
was
far
worse than they
had
hoped
or even feared
.
They
had believed
that all
of
the undead
-
or at least most of
them
-
would
have
gone away,
be
en
out on the hunt
for food
to Cuzco
or on the chase behind them
.

Alas,
they were
more than
wrong.
Standing a
t the
remains of the
ancient
gates
,
as though they had been waiting for them
to arrive
,
stood
a dozen
or more
of the
monsters
. B
oth Minco and
Pizarro
suspected
that
they were not alone, that
many more
of them
were
lying in wait, hidden
somewhere
inside th
e
decrepit
walls.

Minco
took
a moment
or two
to
look
around
at
his
companions
. They were still hidden in the jungle foliage, well beyond
the tree line
that lay
across
from
the gates
.
Nineteen souls
were
all that was left of the
group
that
had
set off from Cuzco
,
and this was
including Inguill and the K
ing
’
s
brother.
He had no doubt t
hey were a
ll good men
and women
,
but
it was
n’t
much of a fighting force.

“We
’ll
need to come up with something soon,”
a
dejected sounding
Pizarro
s
aid as he flopped
down
against a tree, right
next to Minco and Inguill
. He wiped
his
sweat-ridden
brow
with the tattered sleeve of his tunic, looking even more crestfallen when he was reminded of why his sleeve felt so different
. “I’m
pretty
sure
the
horde we lost back at the ravine wi
ll
soon
find
an
other way to get across.
” His eyes
were
fixed on the path
on which
they had
arrived.
“
If they get
to us
before this is finished
,
then we might as well
all
give up
now
.”

“The statue will be
held
in
side
the Pyramid,” Inguill said
, pointing at
the huge black building
. “As you can see
,
i
t
stands
right
in the centre of the city
.
” She
met the gazes of Minco and
Pizarro
, making sure she had their full attention before she went on.
“
We cannot exactly walk into the city and ask for directions.
W
e need
to make
a distraction
.”

T
hey needed to do something, and
they all agreed they had to
do it
quickly.
Minco
knew he was the quickest of the survivors and it would be easy to catch the attention and focus
of the
undead soldiers
. H
e did not trust the Spaniard to do the job correctly
, especially now when it seemed that
the
man had all but given up
since he killed his friend
.

“I
wi
ll take half
of
the men and circle around to the other side
of the city
.
” He peered thro
ugh the foliage towards the sentries
. “
If we can
get
on
top
of
the
back
wall and make enough noise
,
” the corner of his mouth
quirked upwards in a mischievous grin that Inguill had known since they were young,
“
then
hopefully that’ll
drag
the guards
away from the
se
gates.
”

He looked at
his
Inguill
, and the silent moment they shared made
Pizarro
feel he was intruding
.
Minco
continued
with his plan, breaking the spell.
“
Once they’v
e gone
after us
, the way
should
be clear
enough
for the rest of you to
get
inside
,
and
get
to
the pyramid.
”

Inguill
’s lovely face reflected the fear
that
she felt. She didn’t like the simplistic plan
he had concocted,
but she
also
knew there was no other way.

Minco h
eld her gaze as he continued. “You can s
igna
l us when you get near the pyramid
and we
will attempt to break through to join you.
”
He took her hand
s in his
.
“
Pl
ease
my love
, don’t
try
wait for us if it gets too dangerous. We can look after ourselves for a little while until you
can end all this
.”

Pizarro
stood
up
,
his
shoulders squared rigidly
. “Very well
,
Minco
, that sounds like a plan to me.
” He looked at the gates then
peered
back down the path. “
But I
suggest you get
yourself
moving
, Protector. I’m sure you agree w
e
have
no
time to waste.”

With
out
any
more delay, Minco kissed
Inguill’s cheek
,
made
his goodbyes and rounded up half of the
remaining
men as planned.
He gave them his orders and
when he was sure they understood
,
they
quickly
disappeared into the jungle to make their way around the walls.

Inguill looked
over
at the well
-
guarded gates
,
then back to
the solemn
Pizarro
.
“
He
wi
ll
do as he says
,
Spaniard. He will draw
the undead away
from the undead
and
give us a chance to get inside
the pyramid.”

Pizarro
did
n
o
t even r
aise his eyes away
from looking at his
knife that
was
now
completely
removed from its
usual
hiding place
in his sleeve
. “
H
e’d
b
etter
succeed,”
Pizarro
grunted back
at her
.
He couldn’t pry his eyes from the weapon he had used to kill Almargo.
“
If his plan doesn’t work,
then
all that we’ve lost
will have been for nothing.”

*****

As
he
expected, t
he
thick jungle
encroaching the city walls were clear of the undead
, they would all be inside the city protecting its contents
.
Thankfully
,
it seemed the undead had not seen fit
to bother with patrolling the
outside;
this was at least some good news
.
Even so, i
t still took Minco and his men
nearly
a half an hour to
traverse
around
the perimeter
.
He couldn’t help but wonder
how close the main army of Supay was getting to the
city.
They had no way of knowing
how much time
they had
left. It would n
ot
be
long enough, thought Minco, and kept on moving
.

When they reached a section of wall
that was
being slowly reclaimed by the ju
ngle foliage, Minco stopped his men
.
“This will do
us just fine
,”
he
said
, tugging
hard
on
the
vines and low tree limbs to check their strength. “We can cross
over
here.”

One by one
,
he and
his mixed
band of
Spaniards
and Incans
climbed
up and
through
the
branches
and vines
until they
were l
evel with the top of the wall.
T
hey
scanned
the empty city streets
below
, searching for any sign of movement. When
he was happy that
it was clear, they quickly and silently
made their w
ay
out and
onto the high
stone
barrier
.

“Let’s get a move on
,” he whispered
, moving soundlessly for a set of
steep
,
polished
steps
just ahead
. “We need to get
down
to
the streets. I want them
all
to be
aware of our presence but we also need
to be able
to keep moving.
” He looked past the
m
en
towards the
mighty
pyramid. “
We
will
not
pick a
fight
with
them unless we have to
;
we just need to get their attention
.”