zombies of widgeroo – chapter fifteen

chapter fifteen – resurrection, reanimation and human sacrifice…

if you’re looking for the perfect camping ground, don’t go to widgeroo.

firstly, zombies don’t make either good pets or polite houseguests. in fact, i can pretty much guarantee they’re not housebroken, and the only broken things they like are all your limbs and skin.

secondly, the land is desolate for the most part, with desert on all sides, and not much in the way of a town in any sensible direction. at night, the wind dribbles through the two hills, and can be little too chilly if you don’t have a nice blanket, and who’d think of bringing a blanket into the middle of a desert renowed for its unbearable heat?

lastly, the spell i left there would sizzle your boots and melt your thumbnails.

basically, what i’m trying to say is widgeroo is not a tourist destination, so please don’t pack your family into whatever kind of vehicle survives this age, in hope of finding a camp ground and friendly local critters to amuse you for some idyllic weekend of familial sharing.

the zombie didn’t shift on his knees, but i did. as blood protested the ever-shrinking gaps in my veins, i shifted from resting on one knee to the other.

waiting.

the zombie’s eyes glittered, following my every move until i made it into a game.

shift knee, watch the squinting of those dead eyes.

shift knee, watch the pupils dilate.

shift knee, see the corners of each eye twitch.

shift knee, notice the milky eyeballs roll backward.

“who are you?” the zombie repeated.

“relax,” i told him. “we’ll know soon enough. for now, let’s consider the facts.”

the zombie would have sighed if he could, i know. but zombies don’t sigh, not even those who once ruled the known universe.

“consider,” the zombie growled.

“impatience!” i cried, leaning back, sprawling across the grass, and looking up at the sky. the clouds continually changed. “do you notice, overlord? do you notice how the clouds never retain their shape? they are like patterns of chaos, repeating in endless cycle with seeming randomness, but a proper order if you are tuned to perceive?”

the zombie did not look up. “i did not consider it, and i refuse to consider it now.”

“you should. it is a truly inspirational thing to peer up at the sky and know that, were it not for the fine bonds imposed by magnetic energy, we would be free. all it would take, then, is to break our bonds and fly. think of it, overlord! to fly! to soar through the heavens, mingling with the clouds, breaking the atmosphere and onward! onward to what, i wonder?”

“wonder all you like.”

“morose! brighten up. look! that cloud, it seems to have an arm which, as we watch, curls back in on itself, sinks into its body and emerges there, opposite its liver. patterns of magic, overlord.”

“i don’t see what this has to do with what has happened here.”

“don’t you?”

“no.”

“you are the overlord.”

“i was the overlord. i am dead, now.”

“yet, you live. here, and now, in some semblance of life, you live.”

“i am a mockery of life!” the zombie hissed, its strong jaws clenching, the dry muscles pulling back into a fearsome snarl. “i should not be here! and if it weren’t for you, i wouldn’t be! you will bring the ruin of all with me!”

“your blood will return us,” i quoted. “remember that bit, do you?”

“the chaos lords promised you much, i take it, mage,” he spat the word as an insult. a curse, maybe. “i hope it will be worth it!”

“actually,” i took a stray thread of grass and put it between my teeth. amazing as it was, some life had grown around the area in which the zombies knelt. “i don’t think i took anything.”

he looked uncertain, his brittle skin crinkling across his brow. “do you hate the world that much?”

“i kind of like it,” i told him. i put my fist against my temple, and marvelled at the feel of my knuckles resting there. “i have these gaps, you see. and these burned memories which seem to surface at the most surprising moments. for instance, right now i am remembering you when you were human. or as close to human as you were. you fought the chaos lords. you beat them back to their gateway, and you expelled them before destroying the gateway. i remember your triumphant words as the gateway closed, even as you felt the curse of the chaos lords penetrate your very bones!”

and i did remember it. every detail, from the smell of the dead to the moans of the dying, and the taste of blood in my mouth. one of my teeth had been broken, and my upper lip was split.

i held my sword high above my head, though, and the green jewel on its hilt glowed with fearsome energy.

“at last! a new age comes,” the overlord shouted above the cheers of his army.

i stepped up beside him and whispered, “but what of their curse?”

“to hell with their curse!” he scowled. then sighed. “speak no more of it. it must not be spoken of, lest some use it to return them to power. i will take steps to prevent that from happening.”

and i turned to the gateway, now powered down and awaiting destruction. “what of that thing?”

“destroy it,” he ordered. “i want not a single splinter of it to remain. leave no trace they ever poisoned this world.”

i raised my hand, drew symbols of power in the air, green energy tracing lines which hung like fire in the air before me, and i spoke a word of power which made the very ground shake. all eyes turned toward the gateway, some fearing the chaos lords had found a way to reinitialize the broken technology. but, as it exploded with a burst of negative energy, they cheered once more, screaming for the overlord.

in the centuries to come, they would remember him as a god before the coming of the new ages which, one after the other, defiled, warped and twisted his history until nothing of it was left but a shadow of prophecy.

your blood will return us.

few knew what that meant, anyway.

the zombie closed his eyes. “at last,” he whispered, remembering those words. “a new age comes.”

“it came, alright,” i said, winding the grass around my finger. “and went, too.”

the zombie scowled, a shadow of the fearsome scowl he had used when he was alive. a scowl which cowed even the most powerful of mages. “who are you?”

“you know me.”

“i knew you.”

a footstep stepped into a pool of blood, splashing it across the grass behind me. i didn’t turn.

“at last, you made it, my beloved,” the voice cooed.

“yes, danaya,” i said. “i am here.”

“bitch!” the zombie cursed, trembling with rage, yet not moving from his bowed position.

she knelt beside me, one delicate hand on my shoulder. the other she used to cut his cheek. “overlord,” she said in a mocking tone. “how nice to see you restored to your rightful position. on your knees.”

“how are you here? the gateway was closed!”

she put both her arms around me, and her lips kissed my neck. “my beloved.”

the zombie’s eyes turned to me. “i trusted you.”

“i closed the gateway. i destroyed it for you. what more did you want from me, overord?” i asked. “you can’t just expect loyalty. the second coming of the capitalist overlord did, and look what it got him.”

the zombie’s eyes flicked toward the dead body. “who are you?” he persisted.

“not yet,” i told him, with a finger to my lips. “i want to show you something. something i have carried within for so long.”

“i am not interested. get it over with.”

danaya laughed, the sound mocking him. “surely you want to see the mysteries which were denied you, overlord? it was for those mysteries that you fought my brothers, chasing them from your puny world and into the stars. you thought you vanquished us!” she grabbed his shirt and pressed her nose against his, staring deep into his milk-white eyes. “we who built this world from the ashes of a star! we who could obliterate your universe without a thought and rebuild it in any image we choose! you thought you, an insect, might bind us? you who once accused us of arrogance? pah! it was you who played arrogant!” and she spat in his face before flinging herself away. “come,” she cried. “let it be over with!”

i held my hand up. “no, let it rest. in a minute. one more thing, first.”

and i used my pen to carve a rune of fire into the air between us.

the zombie’s eyes widened. “what is it?”

“just a paltry gift,” i said. “watch closely.”

and i weaved a second rune over the first, binding them together with the sign of an apple, before speaking the power word imac.

the world blurred.

widgeroo shifted.

the grass turned to carpet, blood red.

the sand to stone.

zombies blurred and became benches, and the dead body of the second coming of the capitalist overlord became an altar.

danaya and i stood beside the overlord and his skin bubbled, regenerating as veins whipped into place, binding themselves again.

he screamed as his heart suddenly powered up again, pumping thick black blood through his body. muscle regrew, his hair smoothed and flakes of filth dropped from his clothing.

he curled up beside the altar, weeping at the pain of it all.

and, above us, the faces of the chaos lords watched it all with satisfaction.

in front of the altar, a bath waited, steam curling upward like ghosts.

i smiled, knowing that’s just what they were.

the water inside steamed invitingly.

last time, feeling as if parts of myself were floating away.

i had known i was losing something, but it was vital that it be lost.

it’s alright, it’s gonna be just fine.

danaya looked at me, a frown trying to summon itself across hier perfect face.

“what’s the matter?” she asked. “something is different in you.”

i smiled and took off my clothing. then i stepped into the water, and the steam curled up around my legs, draping itself across my like a cloak.

slipping into the water, i felt the heat embed itself in my bones.

i could see the overlord, writhing in front of the altar, and danaya chewing her bottom lip.

i knew she couldn’t read my thoughts in this place, the temple i had discovered in the sewers of a dying american city, a temple i had discovered within myself.

i smiled at her. “it’s alright,” i said. “it’s gonna be just fine.”

and the heat crept up my body, chewing into my spine before finally lunging like a snake into my brain.

a sharp pain blinded me for a second, and then, like a jigsaw, i knew me again.

i knew my mind.

that piece i had hidden here to wait my return, as the zombies waited my return in widgeroo, as the gateway waited my return where it too had been blasted to pieces in the grassland that once covered the desert of widgeroo, and as danaya waited -–for what, she could not know.

“it’s alright,” i said, and my voice felt different. sounded different, too. “it’s gonna be just fine.”

the overlord, recovering from his regeneration, looked up at me through the haze of steam and said in a voice like acid, “who are you?”

his question was the lock, and my answer the key.

behind the altar, the curtains pulled open to reveal the gateway, powered down, but awaiting the one thing it needed to open.

“one moment, overlord.”

your blood will return us.

danaya turned to me. “take his blood. open the gateway. do it! do it now!”

i knelt to retrieve the pen from my clothes, and began scrawling ancient symbols of power on the ground before the altar. murmering words which had not been spoken in centuries, i slashed holes in the very fabric of the universe with that pen.
holes which were a beacon to forces not even the chaos lords would understand.

danaya hissed, her breath sharp as she knelt beside me. “what is it? what do you do?”

the spell was finished, waiting my command.

the whole universe seemed to be waiting on me just then.

it was both thrilling and frightening.

i turned to her.

“i’ve finished with you now, danaya.”

“i don’t understand.”

“the waters have given my memories to me, and all is as it should be. now i need to reclaim my power. i thank you for keeping it for me.”

“what?”

i pressed the fingertips of my left hand against her breasts and smiled.

eris.

she burst into powder, and a green ball of light hovered in front of me.

the overlord gasped and tried to push himself back into the altar.

i pointed at him. “don’t go anywhere just yet, overlord. not just yet. i need your blood, first. on the altar. go on. climb up, or i’ll make you climb.”

he sobbed, crawled up the altar, and began laying himself on it.

the ball of energy hung there in front of me above the spell i had drawn on the temple floor.

“i needed you, danaya,” i said. “i needed someone to guide me to this place when my memories were lost. poor jubei. did he really think i would let him bind my power to him? i must admit, danaya, that your love for me was not something i counted on, but it is something i will treasure. now, return to me.”

the spell on the floor glowed with gentle green light and the ball hovered forward, touched my chest and burned itself into my skin.

i looked down, and the tattoo i had carved onto my flesh when i was initiated into the realms of magehood blazed there, protecting and enhancing me.

i felt whole, for the first time in a long time.

and powerful.

i turned to the overlord, who said, in a voice which rolled across the room. “who are you?”

his question was the lock.

my answer would be the key.

i stepped up to the altar, and raised the pen above my head.

“why, brother, don’t you recognise me? i am jubei, the second coming of the capitalist overlord.”

the pen streaked down.

Tags: zombies of widgeroo