Zahra drew her pistol free too.
Next, Rabia silently moved off to the nearest building, and ducked her head inside. A light bloomed to life and swept back and forth. No shots were fired, and Rabia exited and headed for the next structure. Something had spooked the woman, and she now found it necessary to clear the buildings of a dead city.
It can’t hurt, I guess, Zahra thought.
She decided to help and crossed the road. The closest structure was a low-roofed, brick-shaped building. The door was nothing more than a rectangular opening, barely wide enough for a human to slip through. Zahra clicked on her Glock’s rail-mounted light and leaned inside, keeping her lower body outside. Panning from left to right, the first pass revealed a single room, and very little else. She gave the room another look, this time, slower…and lower.
More bones.
The floor was sprinkled with them.
The sight gave her the chills. Seeing enough, she leaned back out into the city and was, once more, hit with the sulfurous stench. Rabia was two houses ahead of Zahra and still on the opposite side of the road.
Zahra was about to continue her own search. Curiosity drove her now. If there had been people living here in the past, then there would be evidence of their living habits. Artifacts.
And there were other dangerous things lurking about — in the form of Khaliq Ayad, and maybe even Ajmal — but this was still a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, and she did not want to rush.
A crossroads was up ahead. Zahra watched Rabia turn right and disappear behind the last structure. Zahra, Baahir, and Ali picked up their pace and swiftly caught up with the sniper.
They took the right turn, as well, around the house, nearly banging into the back of Rabia. Zahra saw what had caused her to stop — there was no way to miss it.
They stood in awe of the ancient stone bridge… and the infernal glow emanating from beneath it. Without the cover of the buildings, the heat was much more intense here.
“We’re supposed to cross that?” Baahir asked.
Rabia nodded. “Yes.”
She didn’t remember spotting another way across, and it could take the rest of the day to search for an alternate route. As amazing as this place was from a historical standpoint, they still had a job to do.
They needed to find Khaliq.
They needed to stop him.
Zahra looked at the others. “We, uh, need to get moving.”
No one moved. Not even Rabia. So, Zahra led the way. She took the centermost path up to the foot of the bridge, going as far as ducking her head down. This was the moment that she missed her jacket the most. It would have made an incredible heat shield. Luckily, the bridge was wide enough to block some of the heat. She took the incline in stride, never once stopping.
If she had, she might not have been able to start again.
Zahra turned and saw that her brother was struggling with the climb. He looked exhausted, and rightfully so. He’d been out in the desert heat longer than the rest of them. Zahra slowed and allowed Rabia to move ahead of her. When she was within reach, she held out her hand. Baahir didn’t verbally respond to the gesture. He simply took her hand and kept going. Zahra pulled him along the best she could. The companionship seemed to give Baahir the energy he was missing, and he picked up his pace, slightly.
Rabia made it to the peak of the bridge first and stopped. Zahra wouldn’t have stopped, but she understood why a few seconds later. The left side of the bridge was missing, cutting the width in half. Zahra knew what it meant. They’d be more exposed to the searing heat, while also having to trust the integrity of the already faulty construction.
“Um, my friends…” Ali said from behind.
“What?” Zahra asked, squeezing her eyes closed. They needed a break from the heat and fumes.
“I fear that Baahir may have been… correct.”
Everyone spun around, and Zahra’s eyes opened again — then widened — as they saw dozens of shadows moving below.
And they looked human.
There had been no evidence of anything alive down here, but these shadows suggested otherwise.
Rabia pointed to the crossroads. “Look…”
And there, from within the smoky gloom, stepped a single person.
Zahra swallowed. What the hell is this place?
And then another, and another. More and more people filled her vision.
The people — if they could still be called that — were all in varying stages of decomposition and decay. A few were missing limbs and chunks of flesh altogether. They were mostly nude, with skin that was dry and leathery, and each of them was caked in dust.
And blood. Centuries-old blood.
How are they moving?
“Are they—”
Zahra sighed, finishing her brother’s thought. “Zombies… they’re zombies. Right? They have to be.”
“I think we should run away,” Ali said, turning back to the broken section of the bridge. “Then we can discuss it.”
Baahir backed away. “I second that.”
Zahra leveled her pistol at the nearest ‘person,’ but then lowered it. She didn’t know if they would respond to the sound, or if they would even be affected by the blast.
“Go.”
All four of them bolted into action, running over the bridge, paying the heat and the broken section no attention. They cleared the ruined section in no time, and allowed the decline to aid in their escape.
Zombies… Zahra thought, breathing hard. It can’t be. As fun as they were in fiction, this was real life — and something like that couldn’t exist.
Right?
Suddenly, the group stopped, and Zahra nearly plowed through them all. The collision was a hefty one, and Ali was knocked to the ground. Rabia and Baahir picked him up.
Not that Zahra noticed. Her eyes were glued on the shadows moving about before them.
“Shit…” she hissed.
The others froze in place and watched as dozens more of the decrepit army came into view. They began pouring out of buildings — not unlike the way the scorpions had seemed to multiply and press forward constantly — and appeared out of the obscure haze of the city streets.
“How is this possible?” Ali asked.
“It… it’s not,” Zahra replied.
“It doesn’t matter,” Rabia said, reequipping her rifle. She shouldered it, gazed down the scope, and pulled the trigger.
The closest of the bunch lost his head. The skull exploded in a puff of goop and dust — not at all what Zahra expected to see.
No blood?
“What the…”
“What is that?” Zahra asked as she lined up another man’s head in her pistol’s irons. But she was focusing on what she saw now coming out of the headless corpse Rabia had just shot.
She fingered the trigger but didn’t pull it. Rabia’s description stopped her in place.
It was the same description Zahra would have used, but it could not possibly be accurate.
“I see… worms?”
“Worms?” Ali asked, looking sick to his stomach. Even in the firelight and caked in dust, Ali’s skin visibly changed color.
Rabia lowered her weapon and eyed Zahra. “Yes, worms.”