David Presley - Rise of the Undead 1943

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?”