by Jeff Gunhus
She didn’t want to do it.
I let go with one hand and scrambled for the Jerusalem Stones in my pocket.
Hester felt the shift in pressure and twisted violently to the side.
The knife slid out of her and she was free.
Immediately, she dropped down and swept Eva’s legs. The move was unexpected and caught Eva off-guard, sending her to the ground and my sword skittering away.
Hester jumped through the air, landing top of Eva, pinning her down.
Eva had one hand up under Hester’s chin, just enough to keep Hester’s snapping teeth away from her face.
But Hester pressed down harder and Eva’s strength gave way to the weight.
I pulled the Jerusalem Stones out of my pocket, jumped at Hester and landed a solid kick with both feet in her side. I heard the sickening sound of bones breaking, but I knew it would barely faze her. I only needed a couple of seconds to see if my plan was going to work.
I stretched out and grabbed hold of her leg with my free hand, purposefully staying as far away from her teeth as possible.
I closed my eyes, trying to clear my mind of my fear, and the pain from the knife wound in my shoulder.
The Jerusalem Stones grew warm in my other hand.
I concentrated harder. Remembering Hester’s sacrifice for me that night in Sunnyvale. Remembering that final moment before she fell into the zombies when she had looked me in the eye and told me she believed in me.
I remembered who she had been and desperately willed her back into being that once again.
The leg I held twisted in my hand. Then I felt a hand grip my wrist.
I opened my eyes and saw that it was Hester’s hand.
Hester’s human hand.
I looked up and saw her face, no longer the decaying zombie’s, but the beautiful hunter’s I remembered. She smiled at me.
“See, Jack?” she said. “I told you that you were the One.”
24
Eva lowered her sword and stood open-mouthed at the sight of Hester back in human form. She ran up as if to hug her, but stopped short, staring at where Hester held on to my wrist.
I understood her concern.
“Don’t let go of me, Hester,” I said. “I can’t tell you how I know this, but I sense that this isn’t permanent.”
Hester nodded, tears in her eyes. “I know it’s not. But you have no idea how good it feels to be human again. To be out of that nightmare, even if it’s only for a minute.” She reached grabbed me with her other hand. “And to see you. Knowing that it was worthwhile.”
“We have three of the Jerusalem Stones,” I said. “We’re nearly ready to face Ren Lucre but we’re running out of time.” Another section of ceiling collapsed in the distance, followed by a shift in the ground under our feet. Hester looked up sharply as if seeing the danger of her situation for the first time.
“Talking about running out of time,” Eva said. “We need to get out of here. Hester, do you have the Jerusalem Stone?”
She nodded and put her hand on her chest. “I…I…have it. But everything’s so confused in my head. Ren Lucre had me brought back to his castle, I remember that. But it’s only in flashes. Him standing over me, laughing at the idea of a monster hunter as a Creach Lord. You can’t imagine what the world looks like through the eyes of a zombie. It’s terrible… terrible.”
Her entire body shuddered and I shuddered with her. And it wasn’t just because we were touching. It was more than that. Somehow the Jerusalem Stones had connected us more deeply. I wasn’t just hearing her story. I was feeling her emotions as she told it.
“But Ren Lucre gave me back just enough of my mind to do his bidding. To organize the zombies into a fighting force unlike they have ever been before. Part of me, the real me, knew what I was doing. It was like I could see myself in a mirror but I had no control over my actions.”
The ground beneath us moved again. Eva shot me a look.
“Let’s get you out of here,” I said.
Hester shook her head. “Once you let me go, I’ll turn back. You know I will. You can feel it just like I can.”
She was right but I wasn’t about to let that stop us.
“I’m going to get all five Jerusalem Stones,” I said. “Once I do, I can change you back. I can change Eva back. Daniel.”
“What happened to Daniel?” Hester asked.
“It doesn’t matter right now,” Eva said. “Jack’s right. What matters right now is that we grab the Jerusalem Stone you have and that we all get out of here.”
As if in answer, a massive load of rock fell in near the mouth of the cave, blocking a significant portion. I stood, carefully pulling Hester up to her feet with me. If I let go I was afraid at how fast she might turn back into her zombie form. The cut in my shoulder ached. I was in no hurry to have to face her again in a fight.
“How did you even get in here?” Hester asked. Because we were connected, I could feel a wash of embarrassment in her. Even though she was a zombie, this cave had been her operation and we’d penetrated her defenses with very little effort.
“You never figured on us having our own vampire to infiltrate the area,” I said, trying to make her feel better.
Eva nodded to the backs of the Roman legionnaires standing in front of us. “How do you think these guys are going to respond when they see the Lord of the Zombies in her human form?”
Hester turned to me. “Can you control the power of the Jerusalem Stones? Reduce the effect so I’m in my zombie form but still aware of who I really am?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can try using only two Stones instead of three. But how about you give any weapons you have to Eva? If you convert back too far, I don’t want you taking my head off.”
Hester agreed and handed over the knives she had in various sheaths on her body. When she was done, she nodded that she was ready.
“Here goes.”
I took one of the Jerusalem Stones out of my hand and deposited it in my pocket. Immediately, I felt my connection with Hester change. She did too. Her face stretched out into a silent scream, so wide and painful looking that I almost grabbed the Stone back from my pocket to stop it.
But Hester gripped me tighter around the arm. “Wait,” she said in a harsh whisper.
Slowly, her features grew dark, her skin sagged, and the light went out from her eyes. Her face transformed back into the hideous zombie version and her hands turned into bony claws.
I braced myself in case she attacked, paying special attention to how close I was to her teeth.
But the attack never came.
“Is it still you?” I asked.
Hester nodded, her flesh making a sick, wet sound as she did. But it was all right. The plan was working.
She slid her hand down the length of my arm, took my hand in hers and then led me forward. I glanced back and saw Eva following close.
The Roman legionnaires parted for the Zombie Lord. Without being told, they formed a protective detail around us and marched us through the cavern.
All we had to do was head to where the others were waiting and sneak back out. It was going to work.
And then the ceiling fell in.
It started near the front entrance, in the same spot where the last big collapse had been a few minutes earlier. The difference was that it never stopped.
Deafening cracks filled the air as a chain reaction spread through the rock.
An enormous pile fell on top of the biggest fire in the cave, scattering it and sending entire trees engulfed in flames flying through the air.
A great scream went up as hundreds of zombies caught on fire.
We were on high ground so we had a good view of the entire floor of the cave. The zombies were so tightly packed together that once the flames started, they spread like the zombies were dried wheat in a field set ablaze.
“Run!” I cried, gripping Hester’s hand even tighter.
We pushed through our Roman guard, heading towa
rd the secret tunnel entrance. More rocks crashed down around us, exploding like bombs on the floor.
Ahead of us, four vampires in black cloaks stepped into our path. They stood shoulder to shoulder, seemingly unconcerned about the chaos.
“Where do you think you’re going?” they said in unison.
I’m not sure if they were somehow mentally linked together or if they just did that to sound particularly freaky. If so, it totally worked.
There was a battle cry behind us, somehow loud enough to be heard over everything else . I spun around. It was the Romans, spears down, charging at us with their teeth bared.
I held up my sword as they reached us, ready to deflect their attack.
But they passed right by us… and attacked the vampires.
“Come on!” Eva yelled.
We swung around the frantic battle between the zombie legionnaires and the vampires, climbing up on the rocks. More of the ceiling was falling in all around the cavern.
Will and Daniel climbed down to meet us.
“Hurry,” Will shouted.
“Where are the others?” I yelled.
“Ariel is taking them up,” Daniel yelled. Then he saw Hester and froze.
I hit his shoulder. Hard. “Move, Daniel. Now!”
He snapped out of it and led the way up through the rocks.
“Watch out, Eva!” Will shouted.
I looked back to see one of the vampires had fought his way through the Romans. He stood on a boulder, the inferno of burning zombies raging behind him, his arm pulled back and ready to throw a knife at Eva.
A second later, a massive boulder fell from the ceiling, scoring a direct hit and squishing him like a bug.
We turned and scrambled up the rest of the way, dodging into the tunnel as the cave started to completely fall apart.
But we weren’t out of danger yet. The entire mountain was unstable and it would only take a small cave-in to bury us alive.
I pulled the third Jerusalem Stone from my pocket and held it with the other two. Within seconds, Hester was transformed into her human form and able to move faster up the path as she hung on to my arm.
“Faster, faster,” Eva called behind us.
Smoke chased us, forced out from the main cave by the collapsing roof.
We ran as hard as we could, the ground shifting under our feet as earthquakes shook it. Small rocks rained down on us. I had to hold on to Hester with one hand so I only had one arm raised over my head to fend off the blows.
After what seemed like forever, Daniel called, “I see the end!”
Smoke engulfed us as the cave became lower. For the last thirty seconds, we were basically running through a chimney.
Finally, we burst out into the open, hacking and coughing. The others were there waiting for us and supported us as we got out bearings.
“You made it,” T-Rex said. “You really… you had us… Ms. Hester?”
He froze, blinking hard. Daniel came closer, seeing Hester in her human form for the first time. Will shook his head in disbelief.
“How?” Daniel asked simply.
Hester opened her mouth to answer but stopped, something over her shoulder catching her attention. I turned around, careful to keep her hand in mine.
The mountain ridge above us was lined with zombies. They had climbed up from the valley floor once the cave had started to collapse. There were too many of them to count. And they were all staring at us.
Ariel and Daniel pulled their weapons.
“Now what?” Ariel said.
After not knowing the answer to that question for so long, I surprised myself with the plan the sprang into my mind. If there was any question whether the Jerusalem Stones were linking my thoughts with Hester’s, it was answered when she squeezed my hand and said, “That plan’s crazy enough, it might just work.”
“What plan?” Will asked.
I smiled and told them exactly how we were going to get into Ren Lucre’s castle and finally complete our quest.
When I was done, Eva looked at me with admiration.
“That might be the most brilliant plan you’ve ever had,” she said.
I grinned. “Thanks.”
“Or the most stupid,” she added. “Hard to tell.”
I started to object, but she held up her hand.
“Either way, I’m in.”
The others nodded that they were in too.
As we quickly discussed how to pull it off, I knew that Eva was right. I just wasn’t sure whether she was correct about my brilliance or my stupidity.
I had my suspicions and that was what had me nervous.
One thing was for sure. Good plan or not, the final battle with Ren Lucre was finally here. I just hoped we were ready for it.
25
When I was an eighth-grader back in Sunnyvale, I never imagined that in less than a year I’d find myself marching through the night across a barren, icy landscape in Norway at the head of a massive zombie army on my way to try to save the word. But there I was, tied arm-to-arm with Hester to prevent us from accidentally becoming separated, trudging through the snow and ice-fields toward Ren Lucre’s castle.
Hester had surprised us with the revelation that we were mere miles away from Ren Lucre’s stronghold. It was the reason the zombie horde had been frozen in ice at that location, so that the Creach Lord could thaw out an army should he need it for his defense. Only now that Hester was on our side, thanks to the Jerusalem Stone, the plan was going to backfire on him.
Although hundreds if not thousands of zombies had perished when the cave collapsed, the army in the valley outside the cavern was Hester’s to command. By using only two of the Jerusalem Stones, she was able to occupy a midpoint in her transformation where she appeared as a zombie but retained control of her own mind.
And that turned out to be more important that we thought. First, and most obviously, it kept Hester from trying to kill us. That was a nice change since my throbbing shoulder constantly reminded me that it’d taken both Eva and I to even slow her down in a fight. She was one tough customer. But secondly, we discovered that her control over the zombie masses that swarmed around us was all through her mind. They did what she told them to do with her thoughts. Whether they all communicated with her directly or whether the nearest zombies simply relayed her instructions outward was unclear. I suspected the latter was more likely, the way bees or ants communicated.
I wanted to ask her a hundred questions, but when she was in her middle-state between human and zombie form and exerting control over her army, she was unable to do anything else. We walked in silence, the low gurgle of a thousand murmuring zombies the only sound in the air. She’d had to change back into her zombie state soon after we agreed on a plan since the zombies had hurtled down the mountain toward us. As soon as she assumed her form, they’d stopped in their tracks, turned around, and joined the rest of their kind in a marching formation.
The connection between our two minds was still strong and I could feel the thoughts she sent out to her army. It was like hearing thunder from a storm far off in the distance, barely audible but leaving no doubt about its power and strength.
Early into our march, I tried to probe her mind by sending a question her way without speaking it. Just trying to send it with my mind.
“Where is the Jerusalem Stone?” I asked.
“I told you I have it,” came the reply. It was Hester’s voice, but it sounded like a distant whisper. “Stop worrying.”
“Maybe if I had it I could turn you back permanently.”
“And who would lead this army? You?” she said.
The zombies nearest us spun around and took a step at us. I felt Hester send a powerful thought in their direction and they recoiled, snarling. A moment later, they turned and continued their march.
“I need to concentrate. No more questions.”
And that had been hours ago. My friends walked behind us, reluctant to break my concentration either as I kept Hester in h
er quasi-human form. I assumed they felt the same dread as did I, at being surrounded by a thousand fast-zombies only held in check by Hester’s mental suggestion that they shouldn’t tear us to pieces, slurp up our guts, and chew our bones.
That’s the kind of thing that makes it hard to relax.
At least the Northern Lights were out in force, giving us something interesting to look at while we marched. I’d seen pictures a thousand times of the green light that danced across the night sky, but seeing it in person was a completely different experience. In science class, Mr. Malone had explained to us that it was caused by charged particles from the solar wind interacting with atoms in the atmosphere. I didn’t pretend to understand it in class then and certainly didn’t understand it when I was watching it in person. It seemed to be impossible that something so beautiful could be accidental or the by-product of some natural process.
Whatever they were , the lights filled me with a sense of awe at the enormity of the world. But they also left me feeling suddenly small and not up to the monumental task ahead of me. Even with the zombie army at our command, I wondered whether we would be able to get inside the castle walls.
Finally, Hester came to a stop. We were in a low, bowl-shaped area, large enough to hold the zombies. I felt the throbbing pulse of thought go out from Hester, and the zombies on the outer edge of the army ran to the edge of the area and then linked arms in a human… err… zombie chain. It created a tripwire for anyone trying to get into our area but it also effectively corralled the zombies inside the circle.
“What’s going on?” Eva asked.
I shrugged and we waited for Hester. With her free hand, she pointed to a pile of boulders near us. Like before, I heard her voice inside my head.
“That rock formation will give us somewhere to rest and talk,” she said. “We’re very close now.”
I turned to the others. “We’re close. Let’s take shelter in those rocks over there, rest and get out bearings.”
“Thank you,” T-Rex said to no-one in particular. “I thought my feet were going to fall off.”