Robert Walker - Zombie Eyes

"Hold to your faith in me, Stroud!" Esruad fired his mind with the message as Stroud saw all of the monsters of his mind flattened out against the invisible but powerful shield that Esruad continued to display.

The werewolves and the vampires came in again and again, trying desperately to destroy the shield, to put a dent in it, but it was useless. "So long as you believe in me," Esruad told him in a whisper deep within his mind.

The creatures outside the protecting cube now became people, and in their faces, Stroud began to realize who they were. Ubbrroxx now was sending forth the images of all of the people whom Stroud had come into contact with--innocent people--who had lost their lives around him, some due directly to their association with him, some indirectly. Among them were Leonard, soldiers he had known in the war, fellow cops he had known in Chicago when he was on the streets there, Magaffey, who was so instrumental in helping him uncover the vampire colony in Andover, the band of mercenaries he had paid to die in their effort to help him wipe out the werewolf herd in Michigan. All those who had lost their lives in Stroud's various crusades now stared in at him, asking him to join them. Even his grandfather's apparition was among the specters.

Ubbrroxx was working on a very different level now, but Stroud remained firm in his convictions and his trust in Esruad. He noted that among the dead who wandered about the cube, pleading with him to come join them, there was no sign of Wisnewski or Kendra, and this gave him hope for their well-being.

"How long are we going to stand still for this?" Esruad asked from within.

Stroud took his meaning, stepping through the horde of ghosts who had for so long inhabited his nightmares.

They reached out, flattening their ethereal hands against the cube enveloping him, and where this occurred their limbs disappeared into a wispy mist. Stroud stalked on, shouting, "I'm coming for you, Ubbrroxx! Nothing will keep us apart ... nothing."

Stroud spoke a silent dialogue with Esruad as he continued on.

Why did you imprison yourself in the crystal skull for all these years?

To be here now...

To fight the beast again, after failing the first time?

We failed the first time because we were weak, fearful ... worse, we became willing accomplices.

Not you.

All of us.

And that is what will occur now if the evil is not ended by us?

I fear so, yes.

Then we won't let it happen. Armed with what we know now about Ubbrroxx, its character ... and your magic--

It has great powers of its own.

But we have a chance.

Yes.

Because this thing fears you greatly.

It fears us greatly ... us.

Tell me what to do.

The discussion was interrupted by another bout of piercing cries from Kendra.

Stroud stared ahead from where the sounds continued to roll down the corridors of the black ship. "God, I can't stand that."

Put her out of your mind.

I can't do that.

You must.

Just tell me what to do next!

Stroud listened to Esruad's communications as they spun about the coils of his brain, pinging off the metal strip below his scalp. As he did so, he looked again in the direction from which the screams continued. Horrible, nerve-ripping screams, like the cries of a bobcat locked in a bloody trap. It was heart-wrenching to think that Kendra Cline was in so much pain.

Kendra Cline and Dr. Wisnewski continued aboveground through the throng of zombies, and as they neared the final end of the human wall of flesh, they began to see a difference in the zombies at the far exterior of the circle around the pit. Some of the zombies were moving, searching, looking lost and confused, even asking questions of a weak nature. Many were amazed to find themselves here, confused beyond words. Others had begun to race away, seeking cover, and this caused some gunfire which was immediately halted by screaming shouts on the soldiers' side of the barricades ahead of Kendra and Wiz.

"Christ, we could be shot ourselves!" shouted Wiz to her.

Kendra tried desperately to reach Nathan over the radio and thankfully, she found the radio clear of static. She got an operator on the other end and shouted, "Get me the commissioner."

"Who is this?"

"Dr. Cline and Dr. Wisnewski! Hold your fire!"

"No shit!"

"We're back from the pit."

"Holy shit! We thought you were--"

"Get Nathan for me, now!"

"Right, right ... will do! Over."

Only a few minutes passed while Wiz and she were held up at the barricade where others, former zombies, also wanted through, some pawing at one another, still quite out of their heads.

Nathan shook the scene when his powerful voice was amplified through a bullhorn. "Let those people through! All of them! Let them pass!"

Like refugees, the line of migrating, former zombies began moving further away from the center of their troubles. As soon as Wiz and Kendra cleared the barricades, Nathan pulled them aside.

"We had thought you'd become one of them," Nathan said. "Thank God we were wrong. How did you bring these others around?"

"We didn't," said Wiz.

"But ... what does this mean?"

"Only one possible explanation," said Wiz.

"So many coming out of their forced condition," continued Nathan, quite amazed.

"It seems to be only those at the fringes on the wall," said Kendra, "but it's a sign, a wonderful sign."

"What kind of a sign?" asked Nathan.

"It means that whatever is in control of these people has been considerably weakened by Stroud."

"Are you telling me Stroud is still alive and that he has actually affected this--"

"Yes, very much alive. We've been trying to get to you by radio, but we were jammed."

"And Stroud? Have you been in radio contact with him?"

She hesitated only a moment before lying. "Yes, I tell you he is still alive, and he has made a great impact on this thing, as you can see."

"Those people coming to ... are they clean of the disease?"

"Yes, you must take them in. You must open your lines to them," she insisted.

"It will lessen the strength of the creature," added Wiz, who found a place to fall out, weakened by his experiences in the pit and the loss of his good friend, Leonard.

Nathan saw the sun coming over the horizon in the far distance. He instantly got on the horn, shouting for calm, declaring that Stroud had managed a minor miracle and that the outer edges of the zombie line had come out of the spell they were under, due directly to Stroud's efforts in the pit. "Let those people through. Have ambulances and evac vehicles ready to take them out of here!"

The process began, the lines opening, people spilling through, being helped along by armed soldiers and policemen. Medical wagons were instantly filled. A coffee line was begun and the Army began handing out blankets.

Still, a wall of zombies remained, but even so the individual members of the wall began to crumble, fading away from the pit and toward the troop line. Each one was now welcomed by cheers from the combined forces here.

"Where is Stroud now?" Nathan asked, the military brass breathing down his neck.

"He is at the geographic center of the ship, where the influence of this creature emanates from," said Wisnewski from his sitting position.

"And what about Dr. Leonard? Is he with him?"

Kendra said, "Yes. Dr. Leonard remained with Dr. Stroud."

"We got a garbled message saying he was with Stroud," Wiz instantly added to the lie.

Kendra realized, as did Wiz, that if the officials thought there were two men down there alive, they'd think twice as hard before blowing the place with howitzers.

"We were separated from them," said Kendra. "We were all fending off the vilest creatures imaginable."