Zahra nodded. “And a lot of them.”
Chapter 100
Zahra
Oddly, it was Baahir who stepped forward. Zahra could see that he was deep in thought. Zahra knew the look. She wore it often.
“What is it, Baahir?”
“The hellstone… it’s the cause of the plague that Khaliq is trying to recreate, right?”
No one said a word. They all agreed with the statement. It’s why they were here, after all.
“What’s your point?” Rabia asked.
Zahra spoke up. “Our father had a colleague of his test the hellstone many years ago, and he discovered that it carried a species of microscopic organism. The stone itself is nothing more than igneous rock. It’s what’s inside it that’s interesting.”
“Interesting?” Ali retorted. “It could be the end of the world, Zahra. Those… things. That’s what hellstone creates, right?”
Zahra, Rabia, and eventually Ali unloaded a burst of gunfire into the first four humanoids that made it up the base of the bridge. Every gunshot wound just produced more of the same — a burst of wriggling, inch-long worms that fell from open necks, chest cavities, and missing limbs.
As soon as the worms hit the ground, however, they stopped moving. Each one instantly shriveled up, dried out, and died.
“The organism,” Rabia said, reloading. “What are—”
Baahir answered, cutting her off. “It’s a pathogenic parasite.”
Everyone paused and faced Baahir, waiting for him to explain. “I know this,” he started, waiting for Zahra to blast another round through the nearest oncoming life form. “I studied this. It’s called cordyceps. It’s a fungus, actually — one that invades a host like a caterpillar or a worm — and actually uses the host’s own bodies for ambulation.”
“Ambulation?” Rabia asked.
“To move,” Zahra said.
“And it’s infecting the humans? The… people?”
Baahir shook his head. “It’s infecting the worms, but it seems to have created localized hive minds through them, as well. Perhaps with the help of the hellstone. Or the hellstone’s reactive property is the fungus. But the worms use humans as hosts, and the fungus control the worms. Altogether, it seems like the fungus are controlling the people.”
“I’d say they are controlling the people,” Ali said. “Which is impossible.”
Baahir shrugged. “You have a better explanation?”
“Not at the moment,” Zahra answered, pulling the Glock’s trigger three more times. The trio of rounds hit a shambling woman in the chest, knocking her down but not killing her. “How do you know all this, by the way?” Zahra watched in horror as the woman picked herself up off the ground and rejoined the swarm.
“I went down the rabbit hole for a course I did on ancient Egyptian mythology and legend. Everyone knows about scarabs, cats, and sacred symbols that show up in pop culture, but this course was about the truth behind those things — where they came from.”
“Behind us!” Ali shouted, turning and firing. He clipped one in the shoulder and sent him toppling off the bridge and into the river.
The people — the Damned, as she was coming to think of them — on the opposite side of the bridge had pushed the team’s position from behind. Zahra and the others were now the inside of an ancient, rotting, shit sandwich.
“Move!” Rabia shouted. She switched back to her pistol and began punching holes in the zombified people’s heads with well-placed shots. Each shot put the walking corpse down for good. “Aim for their heads!”
Everyone followed her instructions. Thankfully, the Damned were slow, rocking back and forth, similar to the way penguins moved. The team cleared a section of the enemy away and took a moment to reload. Zahra didn’t have enough ammunition for open conflict — no one did. She had one more magazine — fifteen rounds in all, with one already in the chamber.
“More to the right!” Rabia shouted, kicking a shorter man in the chest.
No… not a man.
Zahra’s heart sank. It’s a boy.
Anubis had apparently experimented on everyone — no one had been safe. These people, a tribe or village — whoever they had once been — were all fair game to him.
It reminded her of the atrocities committed by the likes of the Nazi’s Schutzstaffel and Imperial Japan’s Unit 731. All the atrocities perpetrated in the name of ‘science.’ Anubis was now on her list of tyrants who had thought the ends justified the means, no matter the cost.
Zahra lined up a shot to a woman’s forehead, gazed into her gray, lifeless eyes, and pulled the trigger. The round struck the woman at point-blank range. The bullet entered and exited with such authority that it blew out the back of the lady’s enfeebled skull and immediately penetrated the head of the next person. It was the most repulsive BOGO deal Zahra had ever experienced. A third Damned was showered in an explosion of muck and worms.
Ugh.
Zahra turned and physically pushed the group along. They slipped through, and sprinted past, wherever an opening popped up. They could run all they wanted, though. Anubis’ dead army wasn’t lacking in numbers. Every building they neared regurgitated another half-dozen people. Baahir coughed. The fumes were getting thicker, and more noxious.
“The… sulfur!” he yelled while catching his breath. He stumbled. Zahra caught his arm, keeping him upright.
“Sulfur?” Zahra asked. “What are you talking about?”
“Some species have been known to thrive on nothing more than sulfur produced by hydrothermal vents.” He met Zahra’s eyes. “These guys must have adapted to survive on only the sulfur down here.”
“Well, there’s plenty of it,” Zahra said.
They made it past the thickest pocket of the Damned and broke into a somewhat pitiful pace, barely resembling a jog. More of the Damned cut them off at the next intersection.
Zahra’s side suddenly exploded in pain, and she was forced to slow as a result. She tried keeping up, but the Damned were everywhere, and the sounds of their scraping, sliding bodies as they moved — as well as the gunshots from her group — made it too hard to hear anything else.
She tried calling out, but it was too late. A group of Damned moved in front of her.
She was cut off and separated from the group now, and only then did Rabia and Ali notice, stopping and turning to find Zahra.
They shot two of the Damned creeping toward her before they were waved off. “Don’t!” Zahra shouted. “Conserve your ammo! I’ll find another way!”
There were already two dozen Damned between her and the group, with more joining the ranks every second.
She got backed up to one of the buildings. She unclipped her grappling hook and gave the head some slack, then twirled it at her side. Luckily, her shoulder had loosened up a touch since her fall into the man-killer pit. She kept it close to her body. It took very little energy to get it going, but sustaining the high speed would eventually become a problem.
It wasn’t intended to be used this way, but it was the best idea she had.
A woman broke away from the group, moving faster than the others. Zahra pivoted and released the hook. Fifteen feet later, it connected with her face, and she crumbled in on herself.
Zahra didn’t hang around to celebrate the victory. She turned and ducked into the structure, flicking on her flashlight as soon as she entered. A single Damned was indoors. She paid the man no attention. Zahra found what she was looking for.
A crude set of stairs led Zahra up to a low-ceilinged, loft-like, second level. She reached the lone window and leaned outside. Directly below her perch was the road. Three Damned slipped inside. They’d soon trap her here unless she figured something else out.