Rise of the Undead 1943 (4 page)

Monte leads them though an intricately carved tunnel. Strange
symbols adorn the walls, crude drawings of women warriors, hooded priests, and
human sacrifice. Camir waits in front of a headless German corpse, scimitar in
hand. Yusif looks at him; Camir shrugs with a smile.

“Only one?” Monte asks.

Pilch looks at the head, “What the fuck?”

It’s the German with the scared face.

Monte looks to him, “What?”

“I shot that guy.”

Monte looks to the head, “Seems you missed.”

“No, before up top…”

A screaming German soldier emerges from the darkness running
toward them at full speed. He slams into Pilch, and they both fall to the
ground. Pilch rolls on top of the struggling German and pins him down, “Crazy Kraut.”

The German looks up at Pilch as he continues screaming his
feet kicking as he tries to run.

“Jeez, shut ‘em up,’ Oddball says.

Pilch punches him in the jaw and he stops screaming, looks
into Pilchs’ eyes and then stops moving. Pilch checks for a pulse, “He’s dead.”

Monte kneels and looks him over.

Oddball looks to Pilch, “You didn’t have to kill him?”

“I only hit him.”

Monte checks for wounds, “He ain’t shot.”

“Then what?” Pilch asks.

All eyes look down the tunnel.

Matty gulps, “Scared to death.”

Johnson shakes his head, “Bullshit.”

“No, I heard about it from a guy in Baker Company at Kasserine,”
Matty claims.

Monte stands, “Matty, shut up.”

“It’s true; my pa saw it in the Great War,” Clint says.

“We should go back,” Oddball turns to leave. Monte grabs him
and turns him around.

“All of you, shut the hell up,” Monte barks, eyeing the men.

A distant whump of a grenade shakes the tunnel.

Monte, satisfied that the men are listening, looks down the
tunnel, “Let’s get moving.”

Screams and gunshots come from ahead. A bullet whizzes past.

“Johnson, get that other Thompson up here,” Monte orders.

Johnson moves forward, and they both have the submachine-guns
pointed forward, “Let’s go, slowly,” Monte tells him.

Johnson holds the Thompson tight, ready to shoot. Bullets breeze
past them. The screams get louder. Something moves from the shadows ahead.
Johnson stops.

“Steady,” Monte says.

A German soldier comes at them, walking backwards and firing
wildly. He turns to face them.

One of the Americans steps on a discolored brick. There’s a
click from the floor. The American looks down.

The German and Johnson lock eyes. The German brings his
weapon up, Johnson fires, blowing him down. There’s a loud crash, and Monte
spins to see one of the Americans pinned to the ground by a large lead spike
that has fallen from the ceiling and now sticks out of the man’s neck where his
head used to be. It holds the twitching corpse up right like a pin through a
doll.

“Nobody move!” Monte screams.

Camir looks at the brick; he points out another booby-trapped
brick nearby.

Monte nods, “I got it.”

A bullet whines in and hits an American in the head, and he
falls back dead. Some of the men drop to the ground for cover at seeing this.
Another American lands on a bobby-trapped brick. A metal spike plummets from
the ceiling, the tip of the spike impaling him through the skull and exiting
his mouth. He writhes and groans in agony, vainly trying to pull himself free.

“God-damn-it. Nobody move!” Monte screams even as more
rounds fly in, “Yusif.”

Yusif waves Camir forward, and he walks confidently,
pointing out the bricks they should avoid. Monte looks to the men, “Everybody
got it?”

The men nod.

Monte looks back to the impaled man to see he’s no longer
moving, “Alright, slowly.”

The men move down the tunnel cautiously, on edge, stepping
over the booby-trapped bricks. German bodies litter the corridor, some impaled
by spikes, others with bloody wounds.

“Who are they fighting?” Oddball asks.

“Shut up,” Monte says over his shoulder.

The hallway ends at an octagon-shaped room with passages
leading in eight directions. Gunfire and screaming echo through the room, and
the nervous Americans look down every corridor for the unseen enemy.

“Which way?” Pilch asks.

A sickening scream of agony comes from the dark, and Pilch
spins, looking for the source.

“Which way!” Pilch yells.

The scream intensifies into shrieks of pain and then
suddenly stops.

Oddball turns around to go back the way they came, “Fuck
this.” Monte grabs him, spinning him back and into the room. Gunfire continues
to echo through the passage.

Monte listens but can't discern which passage the sounds are
coming from, “Yusif, get us out of here!”

Yusif examines the hieroglyphic carved into the stone floor.
He indicates a passage, “This way.”

“Are you sure?” Monte asks.

Yusif nods and leads off.

Pilch watches him go and leans in close to Monte, “We can’t
trust him.”

“Yes, we can.”

“He read that gibberish on the fuckin’ floor Sarge, come on!”

“We can trust him!”

“How you figure?”

“I don’t know, but I do.”

Monte follows Yusif into the tunnel.

“That’s real fuckin’ reassuring,” Pilch mutters.

Yusif leads them to an open doorway and stops. He peers in.

Monte looks in to see a dimly lit room with large, gold
double doors and a tunnel leading off in the opposite direction.

Monte points to the gold doors, “Looks like an exit to me.”

“Yes,” Yusif agrees.

“Clint, Matty, lead off.”

Matty and Clint lead them into the room.

Clint gazes at the large gold plated door, “Think it’s real
gold?”

Something moves from the shadows at the end of the room.
Matty taps Clint and points.

Clint calls out in German, “Halt and surrender!”

Two figures step from the shadows.

Clint continues in German, “Hands up!”

Clint looks to Matty, “See, told you my grandfather was from
the old country.”

The figures move into the dim torch light, revealing two Napoleonic
soldiers in full uniform.

“What the fuck?” Clint says.

The Frenchmen come at them, bayonets fixed on their ancient
rifles. Clint and Matty open fire. Round after round slam into the Frenchmen,
but they keep coming. Both rifles click empty.

“Oh shit,” Clint says reaching for his pistol.

Monte pushes his Thompson forward and fires into the
approaching Frenchmen with no effect. Yusif knocks Matty to the ground to face
the charging Frenchmen. He swings his scimitar wide, cutting a Frenchman in
half at the waist.

Clint draws his pistol as a bayonet hits him in the chest
with a wet pop. “Momma,” he cries out.

The Frenchman pulls the bayonet out with a spray of blood. Clint
raises his pistol and shoots the Frenchman in the face, and they both fall to
the ground. The scream echoes through the room, and as the Frenchman falls back,
the ball of energy exits his head. Monte stares at the ceiling where the ball
of energy disappeared, “What the hell was that?”

Camir and Yusif move forward, scimitars in hand to clear the
room.

Oddball pulls Clint back, “Aw, Clinty.”

Matty looks over from where he lays, face down on the
ground, “Clinty, you okay bud?” Clint doesn’t move, “Aw no, Clinty.”

With a hiss, the legless Frenchman that Yusif cut in half
crawls toward Matty with a dagger in its hand. The men get a good look at the
mysterious soldier from the past. Its skin is dried out and has withered tight
onto the bone. Its eyes are sunk deep into the skull and its voice comes out as
dry hisses.

“Jesus!” Johnson cries out.

The Frenchman crawls up to Matty and drives the dagger into
his back.

Oddball shrieks and crawls on his butt backward in fear.

Matty claws at the Frenchman, “Get ‘em off, he’s killing me!”

Oddball continues screaming, and Johnson stares in horror.
Monte calmly steps up and, using his pistol, shoots the Frenchman in the head. There’s
another evil scream and a ball of energy shoots toward the ceiling, Monte falls
back on the ground watching it go.

Not realizing the Frenchman is dead, Matty continues to
struggle, “Help! Get him off me!”

Oddball is still screaming.

Monte stands up and goes to Matty, “Hold still, and Oddball,
for fuck’s sake, will you shut up,” Monte pulls the half corpse off Matty’s
back and throws it down the hallway.

Yusif and Camir return. Yusif shakes his head, “No more.”

Monte pulls the dagger out of Matty’s backpack and then
pulls the pack off.

“How bad is it Sarge?” Matty asks concerned.

Matty tries to get up as Monte feels along his back for wet
spots indicating blood. Finding none, Monte looks at Matty’s pack and pulls out
the gold box. He hands the broken box to Matty, punctured by the dagger, “Lucky
bastard.”

Yusif looks at Matty’s box, “Luck had nothing to do with
it,” Yusif indicates the symbol on the box, “This talisman wards off evil.”

Pilch rolls his eyes, “Yeah, right.”

Matty examines the box, “Hey, the gold’s peeling off.”

Pilch looks concerned, “Gold don’t peel,” he pulls out his
box and scratches it. He looks to Matty, “It’s gold alright. Gold paint. Twenty
bucks!” and disgusted, Pilch throws his box aside, “God-damn filthy A-rabs,” he
looks to Yusif. The two lock eyes.

Monte looks at Clint’s motionless corpse and then to Pilch,
“Open up the door. Let’s get out of here.”

Pilch doesn’t move, his eyes burning as he stares at Yusif.

“Pilch!” Monte barks.

Pilch breaks his stare and walks for the door, “It’s locked.”
He spits the words out over his shoulder in disgust.

“Break it down then.” Monte orders.

Oddball looks over the dead Frenchmen, “Well, that was
pretty much the most fucked-up thing I’ve ever seen.”

Oddball smashes at the door with his entrenching tool while Pilch
sits relaxed against the wall looking on, “Oddball, you wouldn’t last two
minutes on my construction crew back in Chi-town.”

Oddball glares at him.

Pilch smiles, “Come on, you want out of here or not?”

“You could give me a hand.”

Pilch holds up a hand, “Shh, you hear that?” he says looking
around, “Shit. Could be more of ‘em.”

Oddball starts working on the door even harder. Pilch
smiles.

Monte sits with Yusif and looks over all that’s left of his
command, “Six left, six out of eighteen.”

Yusif looks over the men, Pilch lounges against the wall
watching Oddball work on the door, Johnson sits with Camir cleaning his weapon
and Matty busy writing a letter home. Yusif rubs his eyes and silently nods in
agreement.

Monte shakes his head and looks to the dead Frenchmen, “What
are they?”

Yusif looks at him and thinks, “Zumbi, the undead.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing my ass, what?”

Yusif shakes his head, “You are not ready,” He stands, “But
you will be,” and he walks over to Oddball smashing away at the door.

Pilch toys with him, “Like you mean it, Oddball.”

Yusif leans down to Pilch, “It would be easier if you
knocked out the pins,” and he points to the hinges.

Pilch glares at him, “Mind your business.”

Yusif smiles and walks off.

Pilch watches him go and then walks up to Oddball, “Why
don’t you just knock out the pins?”

Oddball smiles, “Hey, that would be easier.”

Johnson cleans his gun as Camir wipes down his scimitar.
Johnson looks over to him, “Devil’s work bein’ done down here.”

Not understanding, Camir smiles and nods.

“We need a priest, that would stop those bastards cold, I
tell you,” Johnson strokes a small cross on a chain around his neck, “Yeah, you
know what I’m saying,” he glances at Camir’s scimitar, “Hey, you got an extra
one’a those?”

Camir grips the hilt of his scimitar and grins. A crash
announces that the door is down.

Yusif leads them into a large room with pillars and a
vaulted ceiling. It’s dim. Torches give off twinkling light, but the ends of
the room are lost in the darkness. Along both walls are alcoves with carved
relief writing. A stone table stained red with blood sits just inside the
doorway. Yusif stops to look at it as Oddball and Johnson continue into the
room. Monte joins Yusif, where they look at a fresh heart on the table. Oddball
gazes around the ancient room, “Looks like a church.”

Johnson frowns, “If Satan had a church.”

They hear muffled voices ahead. Oddball and Johnson move
slowly forward, weapons ready.

Monte bends down, looking at the heart, “What the fuck?”

“An offering.”

“To who?”

Yusif looks to Camir and begins to answer when from the far
end of the room, they hear a blood-curdling scream.

Oddball and Johnson freeze. There’s another agonizing scream
that’s quickly silenced. Oddball spins around to leave, only to find Monte
there. Monte spins Oddball around and pushes him forward. Yusif joins them and Monte
signals his men to spread out with hand signals. The men move ahead with
weapons at the ready. As they round the last pillar they see a stone block in
the center of an open space with two men dressed in hooded sackcloth cowls
holding an Arab man bent backward over the block. The Arab man screams and
struggles to break free as one of the priests raises a bejeweled dagger to
strike. Monte looks on in horror; the priests are ancient with grey leathery
skin pulled tight onto their bony skulls. The Arab man screams as the knife
drives home.

“Jesus Christ!” Monte exclaims.

A third priest holds a young woman captive.

Monte speaks through clenched teeth, “Take ‘em down!”

Pilch aims his rifle and fires. The priest holding the women
falls back, a hole in his head. As the priest falls to the floor his head
explodes in energy. Bolts of lighting strike out, hitting several of the men
and knocking them down.

The women is stunned but manages to pull the priest’s dagger
from his hand and jumps onto one of the priests at the alter, driving the
dagger into his back.

The other priest looks to her with a snarl as the next round
hits him in the face. His head also explodes, and more men are knocked to the
ground by the explosion of energy. The Americans look on, awe struck, as the
woman drives the dagger again and again into the priest’s back.

Monte, finally snaps to, “Oddball, get in there and help
her.”

Oddball smiles, “Looks like she’s doin’ fine.”

“Oddball!”

“Yes, Sarge.”

Oddball walks up, draws his pistol, and shoots the
struggling priest in the head. The explosion sends Oddball sailing through the
air to land roughly on the stone floor. The woman falls back on her butt and
looks over to him.

He smiles at her, “OK, now that just ain’t normal.”

The Americans get to their feet, scared and confused,
looking at the headless corpses of the priests. Johnson drops to his knees and
begins to pray.

Monte looks around, “Anybody hurt?”

Nobody trusts their voices to speak. Oddball stands and
approaches the woman.

“Matty, check for exits,” Monte orders.

Matty looks around, “Sure thin’ . . . ,” his voice crackles
like a teenager and he coughs, “Sure thing, Sarge.”

Oddball smiles at the women as he walks up, “Howdy.”

Hands shaking, she drops the dagger and looks up to him. He holds
out his canteen, and she slowly reaches to take it. Oddball tips his helmet, “People
call me Oddball.”

Monte walks to where Yusif stands over the body of the Arab
man on the block. Blood runs from his opened chest and his legs still twitch.

Monte shakes his head, “No way to go.”

Yusif shrugs, “One way is no different than another.”

Monte looks into the dead man’s eyes, fixed wide in horror.

“Speak for yourself, mack.”

The women hands Oddball his canteen back, “Thank you,
Oddball,” she says with a French accent.

Oddball smiles, “Well, my momma named me Cletus,” he says
taking the canteen back, “Guys in the Army named me Oddball. Can’t figure which
is worse.”

She smiles, “I’m Vanessa.”

Monte looks at the body of a priest, it’s skin drawn tight
from age, bone showing through in places; it looks long dead, “You want to tell
me exactly what the hell is going on down here?”

Yusif mutters a word in an ancient African language, “Zumbi.”

“Zombie, what the hell is a Zombie?” Pilch snaps.

“Zumbi, the undead,” Yusif translates.

Oddball looks over, “Undead! Whattaya mean undead?”

Yusif shrugs, “Undead. No longer alive.”

Pilch shakes his head, confused, “Dead bodies?”

“We seen plenty of bodies, pal. You heard of Kasserine Pass?”
Johnson says.

Pilch shakes his head in disgust, “Dumb ass A-rab thinking
we’re scared of bodies.”

Camir says something in Arabic, and Yusif nods. He looks
back to the Americans.

Monte shrugs quizzically, “Yeah?”

Yusif sighs, “Not bodies, walking dead.”

The men don’t look convinced. Yusif points to the dead priest.

“See, walking dead, undead.”

“Zombie?” Oddball asks.

“Zumbi,” Yusif responds.

Matty walks up, “No exits,” he looks to Vanessa, “So who’s
the dame?”

Yusif smiles, “The archeologist from the camp. Professor
Montclair.”

Vanessa tilts her head toward Yusif.

Matty looks confused, “He’s a she?”

Monte glares at Yusif. Yusif shrugs, and Monte turns to her.

“Okay, Professor, how long you been down here?”

She looks at the corpse lying on the block. Monte steps in
front of her, blocking the view.

She looks up to his eyes, “Two days.”

“Anyone else in your party?”

“Diggers, but . . . ” she looks toward the altar.

Monte turns to Pilch, “See if you can make some sort of
defensive position at the door.”

“Why me?”

Monte glares at him, “You wanna keep the stripes you have?”

Pilch looks to the dead Arab man, “I’d rather keep the
insides I have.”

“You worked construction; figure out a way to build us a
defensive position at the door.”

Pilch nods and reluctantly heads for the door.

“Matty, go with him,” Monte orders and then turns to
Vanessa, “You some sort of ‘expert’?”

Vanessa nods.

“What is this place?”

Yusif looks to Vanessa, concerned.

“Come.”

She leads them to one of the alcoves. It has ancient writing
with grotesque pictures of people being tortured and killed. Vanessa points to
the picture, “This was written nearly six thousand years ago. It tells of a
great evil rising from the sand and falling upon humanity,” Vanessa looks at Yusif.
Monte notices, but she continues, “A Sumerian king opened a doorway to the
underworld in a quest for eternal life. He made a bargain with Belial . . . ”

“Belial?” Johnson asks.

“Master of the Sumerian underworld . . . A demon Lord,”
Vanessa explains.

Monte smirks, “A demon lord.”

Johnson frowns, “What’s a demon lord?”

Oddball looks to the pictures, “I don’t know, but it don’t
sound good.”

She nods and points to a picture of the king kneeling before
Belial. All of them look at the picture, the same handsome face and long hair
as the statue from the entrance, “Belial killed the king, giving him eternal
life . . . as a creature of the underworld.”

Monte shakes his head, “Sure, happens all the time.”

Vanessa continues, “With a doorway open, Belial was free to
bring his legions into this world, but the king’s son battled Belial and banished
him back to the underworld,” she indicates his picture on the wall, the family
crest of the ancient Sumerian king, “The portal to the underworld will remain
for all time, and it’s said the king’s lineage must protect us as punishment
for the king’s betrayal of man.”

Monte waves his hand to shut her up, “Can any of that
mumbo-jumbo show me a way out of here?”

Vanessa stares at him, irked, “Perhaps,” she points to a
large map carved into the wall, “I’ll need some time.”

Monte glares at her, nods, and turns to the men.

“Mumbo-jumbo,” Vanessa mutters.

“Listen up! I want all equipment checked; we’ll dig in here
for now,” Monte barks.

“We should keep going,” Yusif objects.

“Keep going!” Oddball shrieks.

“Are you nuts?” Johnson asks.

Yusif faces them, “How far behind are your engineers?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Johnson asks.

Yusif looks to Monte.

Monte looks down, “It’ll take engineers to get us out if we
can’t find a way.”

“How far?” Yusif asks again.

“Three days,” Monte tells everyone.

Oddball looks to the dead priests, “Aw man.”

“We must move, find another exit,” Yusif tells them.

“And fight more of them thingies? No thanks,” Oddball
states.

“We’ll let the professor here work on that map and wait,” he
tells them.

Yusif looks to Camir.

“Wait,” Yusif curses under his breath.

“Johnson, drag those bodies out of sight. Rest of you, get
busy on those weapons,” Monte orders.

“Load of horse shit,” Johnson grumbles.

“That’s enough!”

Oddball smiles, “You should listen to him Sarge. He’s from
Texas, and if he knows about anything, it’s horse shit.”

Oddball dodges out of Johnson’s reach.