Robert Walker - Zombie Eyes

"Let Dr. Leonard stay back. He's obviously distraught!"

"And have you take my place?" asked Leonard. "I may be afraid, but I'm not so afraid that I would send you in my place."

"Stroud is right. We've already been exposed to this evil, the three of us. We've come away from it not unscathed, but we've shown it that we have the courage of our convictions," Wisnewski began. "Dr. Stroud's right. If we are to beat this thing, we must show some backbone."

"We entered the pit earlier," said Stroud, his hands outstretched to her in a supplicating gesture. "Kendra, we are marked, but you are not. We must go back. We have no choice. Not even Leonard has a choice, not if he wants this thing utterly and completely ended and out of his system."

Leonard nodded like a man who has been told that a son has died, not wishing to accept it, but not knowing any other way. "I was infected. It was inside me, using me up..." He was remembering the dark night of the soul imprisoned within him by the evil. He was remembering the hole he had fallen into, the feeling of being trapped and held down and used. He'd been an insect pinned to a wall.

Wisnewski, too, was recalling the horror of having had his mind and body taken over by something that had crawled around inside him. "We have to go back ... to finish it."

"Or it will surely return to finish us."

"You'll need medical help down there," Kendra said. "It's almost a certainty. And no one knows the safety features of the protective suits as well as I."

"I'm telling you it's too dangerous, Kendra."

She glared at Stroud. "I don't need your condescension or patronage, Stroud, or your O.K. for that matter. You do, however, need me. You need my damned formula, and where it goes, I go." She held up one of the large dart guns and a vial of the dark medicine she and her team had created to combat the zombies.

Stroud looked from her to his watch and back again. Time was ticking away, and with each minute more people were dying outside. He feared desperately for Kendra. She had no idea what she was letting herself in for, and should something happen to her...

"Dammit, Stroud, let's do it!" she shouted.

Wisnewski frowned and Leonard said, "She may be of valuable assistance, and we'll need all the assistance we can get, Dr. Stroud."

Stroud saw that he was outnumbered now. "All right, all right ... but you stick close to me, do you understand?"

"Absolutely."

"Everyone ready?"

"Let's be on our way," said Wiz.

"Before I break down," added Leonard.

Stroud instructed them all to get their gear up to the waiting helicopter immediately.

* * * *

As the helicopter hovered over the sight of the army of zombies that continued to draw innocent people down and down into the hole at its center, Stroud and the others stared in rapt fear and awe at the power this evil wielded from below. "We're going in!" shouted Stroud.

"It's madness to attempt it!" shouted Leonard from the rear, seated beside Wiz.

"The skull will protect us!"

"For how long?"

"For as long as it takes! Dr. Leonard, you will not be returned completely to normal unless you face this thing."

"I may be dead before I'm cured of my fear, Stroud."

Wisnewski tried to console his friend in the rear of the chopper while Kendra Cline stared from the crystal skull on the console of the helicopter, in plain view, to the horror below. As she did so a light began to grow from within the skull and the light gained in intensity and vigor as they neared their destination. The light shone down on the colony of zombies like a strobe beacon and suddenly there was a halt to the frantic, insectlike work of the zombies, and then they stopped altogether.

"I see it, but I don't believe it," she told Stroud.

"So far, so good," he replied, setting the machine down in the midst of the mob. They were completely surrounded by thousands upon thousands of zombies.

"They will let us pass," Stroud tried to assure the others, who were not fighting at their seatbelts to step from the false safety of the bubble they sat behind.

"Can we be sure of that?" asked a worried Wiz.

"Yes, now hurry!" Stroud's voice was tinged with a mix of anxious frustration and a healthy fear of his own as he climbed from the pilot's seat, taking the skull firmly in one hand, his helmet in another. They all got out, strapping on and snapping down the last remaining portions of their protective wear as the zombies looked on in wide-eyed silence, a green eerie glow about them where their own eyes emanated a strange light. They were a ragtag army of people from all walks, all ages and all manner of dress, their clothes torn, soggy and soiled, many wearing clothes stained with blood. Kendra tried to keep her mind focused on Stroud and the skull, as did Wiz, pulling at Leonard to stay close.

The zombies, whose bodies formed the final barricade around the pit leading to the ship, parted as they neared them; they did so in mechanical, silent fashion. "Very obliging," said Stroud.

"Too obliging," replied Kendra.

"Once inside, we will have the upper hand," Stroud promised them all.

"What's to keep these fiends from sealing us inside with this evil?" asked Leonard. "None, none at all! I'm going back!"

Leonard bolted for the helicopter, pulling free of Wiz. Stroud rushed after and the wall of zombies moved in at them as Stroud caught Leonard. The zombies began their eerie chant and Stroud held the skull overhead, reflecting the green glow in a concentrated beam, changing their "Ummmmmmmmmmmm" into a chant of "Esss-ruuuuuu-aaaaaaaad, Esss-ruuuuuu-aaaaaaaad" and making them once again part for the party of fearful scientists. "They won't let us go now, Leonard," Stroud shouted over the din. "There's only one way out of this hell now; only one way--down the damned thing's throat."

Wiz and Kendra supported Leonard as they again moved toward the mouth of the Hell before them. It appeared blacker now than it had been when they had first entered it only a few days before. So much had happened since then; so many people had died, and so many others had been transformed into executioners.

"Move along ... move along," Stroud ushered the others in and Kendra had the unsettling thought that this vile creature was possibly much more cunning than they'd given it credit for, and that Stroud was as yet under its influence the way he was herding them into this black inferno. He looked at her suddenly, as if reading her mind, and said, "Trust me, Kendra ... trust me."

"Yeah ... I'm trying ... trying."

The light in the skull had dimmed as soon as they came within stepping distance of the pit itself. Part of the bow of the ship was visible here and Wiz placed a shaky hand on it, drawing his protected, gloved hand along the petrified remnants.

"Where do we go from here, Stroud?" he asked.

"The geographic center of the ship, but getting to it will be difficult to say the least. We can expect obstacles thrown up along our way."

"Obstacles?" asked Leonard.

"As before."

"But why?" asked Kendra, who had been debriefed by Stroud and the others on the details of their first encounter with the supernatural forces abounding in the ship. Even this deterrent hadn't kept her back. A video recording the same information had been left with Commissioner Nathan in the event they did not return.

"Yes, Abe, why would it place obstacles in our way if it parted the zombies for us?"

"It wants the crystal and Esruad, but it wants them on its terms, and down here, it makes the terms. We must be prepared for anything."

"We are," said Wiz, hefting his dart gun, looking awkward doing so.

Kendra held firm to the wand of her gas jet and said, "I only pray this will be enough."

Stroud saw, as did Leonard and Wiz, that the corridor leading into the pit had widened considerably, dug out by the army of working zombies the evil had employed. Before them lay a network of crisscrossing and parallel tunnels, which ran, it appeared, completely around the ship, the walls dripping with dampness. It was a labyrinth of darkness, cell upon cell of stored carcasses placed in beehive fashion into the walls and covered over with a waxy gauze. Stroud handed the skull to Kendra, investigating one of the cells. There were five dead to a hive, except that they weren't completely dead. Most were maimed, parts ripped from them, some looking as if they'd been bitten near to death, others without skin. They were the victims of the monster that had grown bored with them, and so put aside for later. It was storing the bodies after feeding on them, putting them up with the help of the zombie servants. It would return to them later for a second and third feeding. In so doing, it sapped away their spirits, their souls, Stroud realized.