Where the Dead Men Lie (16 page)

I told myself again and again that I had been drugged. "I’m hallucinating. This isn’t real."

"This is real," the statue said. "And you are free."

"I’m not free. I’m tied up by my ankles, hanging upside down. I can’t even feel my feet. My head is pounding, my mind is screaming. I’m about to be eaten. Sacrificed."

"You are free," the statue repeated. "Free to die. Free to forgive the men who have drugged you and tied you up. Free to hate them." The statue moved his head slowly, like he hadn’t moved in a very long time. He looked at me. "You see these names carved into stone? These are the names of soldiers who gave their lives in the great wars of man. They gave their lives defending their country. They made the ultimate sacrifice for the pursuit of freedom."

"But I don’t even have a light saber," I said.

"Neither did these men."

"No. But they had guns. And tanks. And grenades. And knives.

"And bayonets" the statue added. "Which is basically a knife."

I really wished I had a light saber. Not that I really even liked Star Wars. Kenji made me watch it once. He told me that the whole thing was based on a movie by Akira Kurasawa. He was always full of interesting and useless trivia. I think the movie was called ‘The Hidden Fortress’ or something like that.

"Kenji," I said. "I wish you were here."

But he wasn’t. That’s why he had given me the flick knife. For a moment like this. For a moment when I did not have a gun, for a moment when no one else was around.

It was a flick knife, so I could get to it quickly. It was blunt, but it didn’t need to be sharp because there was no point in cutting an infected person.

I needed to stab them in the head.

Right through their skull. Into their brain.

It was a last resort.

That’s why Kenji had given me the knife.

A last resort.

Knife.

"The Knife!"

I reached up into my back pocket. It was still there.

Kenji’s voice. "Press this button here and the blade flicks out. The actual blade isn’t that sharp but if it comes down to it, you should be able to stab this into the skull of an infected person. Worst case scenario."

I slowly slid the knife out of my back pocket, careful not to drop it. I pressed the button on the handle and the blade flicked out.

Now for the hard part, I thought.

I reached up with one hand to the rope around my feet and pulled myself up. I was basically doing a reverse, upside down sit up. This would be a struggle for me to do at the best of times. And now? Whatever I’d been drugged with had made me incredibly weak and lethargic. My arms were heavy. My fingers felt clumsy and uncoordinated.

I gripped the knife tighter. I started cutting and sawing. And for what felt like the longest time ever, absolutely nothing happened. I made no head way. I made barely a scratch on the rope. I wished Kenji had given me a sharper knife. This thing could barely cut through butter.

I risked a glance back down the main road. The infected person was standing there, looking up into the sky. Too stupid to realize there was a free meal hanging up in the town square.

It won’t be long though, I thought. The Oz virus was designed to find life.

And just then, right on cue, the infected person’s gaze slowly dropped from the sky. It looked right at me. And at that moment I knew.

I knew it knew I was there. And I knew it was only a matter of seconds before it started running for me.

But it never got the chance.

Something jumped on top of it and flattened it against the road. Claws went right through the infected person’s decomposing body. The monster then ripped its head clean off, ripped its torso in half. It held the remains up to its mouth, sniffed it, licked it and then threw it away as it realized it could not eat the infected corpse.

There were three of them. They weren’t anywhere near as big as the one we had seen the day before. But they were big enough. They were bigger than any normal human being. They were built like gorillas. They even walked like gorilla’s I thought. Every now and then they would stand up, look around, sniff the air. And continue their way into town.

A shot of adrenalin from I don’t know where, gave me strength I didn’t know I possessed. I lifted myself up again, and started sawing away at the rope.

And still, nothing happened.

I used the point of the knife to dig into the rope, to at least try and get the strands to fray just a little. I finally made some progress before my stomach cramped up and I fell back down.

I tried to ignore the memory, of the woman from the day before, I tried to ignore the fact the priest and his men were probably watching me struggle from up in the bell tower.

I pulled myself up one more time. I knew this was the last chance I’d get, the last of my strength. This was it.

Now or never.

Do or die.

Life vs. death.

I took a deep breath and gripped the knife as tight as I could. I began sawing at the rope faster and faster.

The monsters were getting closer. I could hear them. They were making that weird guttural, purring noise. Luckily they seemed to be taking their sweet time getting here.

My arm began to cramp and burn as I sawed through the rope. But eventually the knife cut through and I fell awkwardly to the ground, landing on my right shoulder, smashing my cheek into the hot, rough, bitumen road.

I lay sprawled on the road for a few seconds as the sky and the world spun around inside my head. I ordered myself to stand up. And when I finally did stand, I fell straight back down.

Come on, I thought to myself. You’ve got to get Maria. You need to cut her free. You can do this.

I stood up on shaky legs. I felt woozy and nauseas and dizzy all at the same time. I moved over to Maria and began furiously cutting and sawing at the rope.

"Maria," I whispered. "Are you awake?"

There was no answer.

I continued sawing back and forth. As expected the knife wasn’t doing much. "Come on you stupid, blunt piece of crap!"

The rope was starting to fray. But it was taking such a long time.

Fortunately, the three monsters, were taking their time as well. I guess, they had been trained or conditioned to expect a free meal. Meat that had been tied up. No need to work for their food.

I kept on cutting. The rope finally began to fray, little by little. I got into a zone. My arm and my hand were burning, but I had made a little grove in the rope and it was only a matter of time now before I cut all the way through.

Unfortunately, I was out of time.

I could feel their presence as they entered the town square. And then I could smell the rotting flesh stuck between their teeth.

The monsters had arrived. They had moved in slowly. They had me surrounded.

I kind of froze up then. I didn’t know what else to do so I just kept on cutting through the rope. The weird purring noise got louder and louder. One of them roared.

I risked a glance over my shoulder. And at that moment I saw the monsters as the Muppets.

I saw Fozzie Bear.

Gonzo.

Cookie Monster.

Is cookie monster even a Muppet? I had no idea, the only thing I knew at that point; I was glad for the drugs. So very glad.

Eventually I cut through the rope. I even managed to catch Maria as she fell, before she smashed into the ground like I did. I shook her by the shoulders trying to wake her. I even slapped her in the face a couple of times. But there was no response. I was about to check for a pulse when suddenly, I could feel the breath of one of the monsters on my neck.

And at that point, I thought it was over. I thought we were done for. But then I heard running footsteps. Human. Possibly infected.

The noise caught the attention of the monster closest to me. I wasn’t game enough to turn around and see how close it actually was, but it was close enough that I could feel its breath, and close enough that I could feel and hear it inhale sharply as the noise of the running footsteps caught its attention.

I guess maybe it was a natural reaction for the monster. Hunters, like lions or tigers, they instinctively follow movement, something they can chase and eat.

I looked up and saw Ben running towards me. All seven foot, three hundred pounds of the man. He was screaming. Yelling. Axe in one hand. Crowbar in the other.

I was instantly confused.

Luckily, so were the monsters. They had backed away. Unsure of what was happening.

"What the hell are doing?" Ben shouted at me. "Get up. Get out of here. Run!"

The drugs were still working their way around my body. And in that instant Ben turned into a giant gladiator, battle axe in one hand, magical sword of the desert in the other.

I was frozen with fear and confusion.

Ben threw the battle axe and it moved through the air in slow motion. It rotated slowly and majestically. I followed its trajectory. It flew directly over Maria and me, right over my shoulder. The battle axe came to a stop, lodging itself right between the eyes, of the nearest monster, right between the eyes of Fozzie Bear. It fell to the ground in a heap.

Ben pushed me forward, grabbed my arm, lifting me up. "Get out of here," he repeated. "Now."

I did exactly as he said. I picked up Maria and ran.

Behind me, Ben dislodged the battle axe between the eyes, of the fallen monster as the other two converged on him. Amazingly, he didn’t seem too worried by this. In two swift movements, he had beheaded them both with the axe. And then he began to systematically, methodically and enthusiastically smash them to bits with the crowbar which in my mind at that point looked like the sword from He-man. Ben may have even shouted, "By the power of Grayskull!" But I couldn’t be sure.

I continued to run away as fast as I could. Even though in reality I wasn’t running that fast. How could I? I was still dizzy, still weak. I was carrying Maria. I had no idea where I was going, so I headed for the nearest building. It just so happened to be a discount, charity clothes store. I managed to hide in the front window behind a rack of clothes. I held Maria in my arms. I held her as tight as I could.

The world began to spin again. Faster and faster.

Nothing made much sense at that point. I was so out of it. The only clear thought in my mind was that big Ben had just saved my life. And Maria’s.

He had killed three mutated monsters. Killed them with a battle axe and crowbar.

I thought he had joined forces with these murderers?

I thought he was just as mad?

But Ben saved our lives.

Before I could figure out why or how or what the hell was going on, I blacked out.

CHAPTER 24

Was Ben dangerous? I had no idea.

Had he joined forces with the priest?

Was he crazy?

Did he just save us?

Is any of this real? Or am I already dead?

I snapped open my eyes. I was holding Maria tight. We were hidden behind a rack of clothes.

How long had I been out?

I didn’t realize it at first but Ben was standing right over us.

He was covered in blood. So was his battle axe.

Naturally he scared the hell out of me. "Stay away from us!" I shouted as I held out my blunt flick knife, like that would do anything. "Don’t come any closer!"

But he kept coming. He took the knife off me and pushed me aside.

He checked Maria’s pulse. "She’s out. But she’s alive. She’ll be fine."

He then walked out of the store, back towards the church and the bank.

The whole world was spinning. The ground felt like it was once again made out of quicksand.

"Hey," I said to Ben. "Hey, wait up."

My voice came out as a hoarse, whisper. Ben either didn’t hear me, or he chose to ignore me. He kept walking. Man on a mission. A man possessed. A gladiator from ancient Rome. Battle axe in hand. I got the feeling he was out for blood. I picked up Maria and walked after him.

I eventually caught up.

We were out the front of the church, in the middle of the street. Ben was standing over someone. A man. He was kneeling on the ground, in the street. I couldn’t see properly at first because my vision was still blurry. But I think it was Ed. Even when I got closer I couldn’t tell. His face had been beaten in. It was covered in blood. His right eye had completely closed over.

But then I noticed his moustache. Caked and stained with blood. Ed was on his knees. His arms weren’t tied up. They didn’t need to be. They were both broken and dislocated. He had been beaten to an inch of his life. But Ben wasn’t done yet.

Ed seemed to be passing in and out of consciousness. Drooling spit and blood.

Ben leant down and spoke to Ed. "What the hell happened here? What happened to you people?"

Ed spat blood on the dusty road. "We were just doing what we had to do."