"How can you be sure of all this?" asked Kendra, coming toward him to resolutely stand before him. "Suppose it's a trick ... this ... this skull spirit. Suppose it was sent here by the thing in the pit?"
"It is bound up with the demon, yes. It holds the lost souls of those who committed the others to the demon's tortures so many hundreds of years ago, and those trapped souls in the skull belong to the men, women and children who sacrificed their brothers, sisters, mothers to the creature in Etruscan times. The principal voice in the skull was that of this man named Esruad."
"The soothsayer?" asked Wiz. "The one much mentioned in the records?"
"It was no coincidence that we found his document in the ship," added Stroud, pacing now. "The creature has confused me with Esruad on more than one occasion." Stroud stopped before the skull, his hand lightly moving over the object as he said, "Esruad was a magician of sorts and a physician in his day. He dabbled in what we might call alchemy and witchcraft. In fact, it was he who discovered a method of fashioning pure crystal into skull molds, a technique which is unknown and considered impossible today. He molded the skulls to house the souls of men like himself for a dual purpose."
Wiz, Leonard and Kendra were now held in rapt attention, as he continued. "One, the skull acts as a receptacle for the souls of men filled with greater remorse than can be contained anywhere else in the universe. Two, the skull acts as a kind of beacon or transmitter through history."
Wiz took a deep breath and came around to Stroud, saying, "My impression of Esruad was that he was some sort of Rasputin, or Merlin--"
"He sacrificed many lives to learn of the mysteries of the universe," said Stroud, "but this one mystery was more horrible than he had begun to suspect until it was too late. He was quite likely the first surgeon, the first man to cut into a cadaver to unravel the mysteries of the human body. He also dabbled in the occult, and it led to Ubbrroxx."
"An evil man?" asked Kendra.
"He believes so of himself."
Wiz corrected Stroud to a degree. "As scientists we have precious little to base moral judgments--"
"He has made the judgment for us," Stroud said.
"Locked himself for all eternity in the cube of the skull," said Wiz, understanding. "Soul transfer?"
"Something like that, but he also took what remained of the others who'd succumbed to the zombie rule of the creature."
"But how did Esruad fall under its influence?"
"Damned thing is powerful and devious. Don't know the full story, but it had to do with a woman."
"Sure, blame it on that woman Eve," said Kendra.
"Esruad blames himself and the weakness of his race."
"And at the moment this thing in the pit believes you are Esruad?" asked Leonard.
"Yes, and we intend to use that to our advantage. Furthermore we know its name, and we have the crystal skull."
"That won't be enough--not against this thing," said Leonard.
"We have to trust that Esruad knows what he is doing," Stroud replied.
"Trust a voice encased in a crystal skull that only you can hear?" asked Kendra. "I think I'll trust to my anti-serotonin drugs, if you don't mind, Stroud."
He met her eyes and saw the sincere confusion there. "Yes, of course, we must rely on our own devices as well ... by all means."
Leonard went to a corner, the fear of returning to the pit under any circumstances twisting his insides. Wiz, too, was frightened of the prospect, but he went to Leonard and said, "It is a thing we must do, Samuel ... you know this."
-14-
Abe Stroud had held on to the helicopter and they boarded on the rooftop of the museum, making a stop at the hospital, where they picked up protective suits, the darts, dart guns and the medication required. One of the doctors, something of a genius, according to Kendra, had created a gaseous form of the medication and this was placed hastily into spray canisters that the "space" men returning to the buried ship could carry on their backs. Stroud never let go of the skull, keeping it always in his sight.
"How're we going to get past the army of zombies bent on tearing us limb from limb?" asked Kendra. "Have you seen any of the TV footage on what's been happening out there at that damnable construction site?"
She took him into a waiting room where a TV was running the horrible scenes over and over as if even the inanimate electronic set itself could not believe the pictures it was conveying. Some shots from a helicopter, obviously, showed the extent of the horror. The zombie horde had become like one animal, working in unison as the deadly limbs of the creature at its center, both protecting and feeding the mouth. In the dark, it looked like a bottom feeder, buried in the ocean floor, sending out rays of spiked tentacles to draw in its food. The most horrible sight was that of the live bodies being transported from the perimeters of the limbs to the center, disappearing down and down into the thing.
"Christ, we've got to end this thing now! The time's come!" Stroud shouted when he realized that Leonard and Wiz were standing just behind him, both men mesmerized by the sight on the TV screen.
"How the hell're we going to get past that?" Wiz asked virtually the same thing as Kendra had.
Leonard was simply frozen by the sight, mumbling, "My God ... my God..."
"We'll get in. They'll part for us. It will know we are coming in of our own accord and it will like that," said Stroud. "It will see us as self-sacrificing, as it had Esruad."
"You're sure of that?"
"Yes, I am." He went to Kendra and said, "You stay behind here. There's no need for you to--"
"Oh, no! I'm in, Stroud, for better or worse."
"Kendra, there's no reason for you to go in there."
"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. "A
ll 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.
Kendra and the others were spared the sight of the helpless, limbless creatures put up in storage in small cells oozing with the brown muck of the monster. Stroud knew that they could see the awkward shadows through the gauze and hear the awful babble of men without tongues, but he moved his party along, going ever deeper into the pit. There was only one way to help the suffering, only one way to save the city and the world from this terror.
"We've got to get into the ship itself," Stroud told the others.
"Easier said than done," replied Wiz. "Look."
They stared at the enormous, hideous creature guarding the only entry way open to them, the entrance they had once before used. The thing at the portal of rotten timbers had no visible or discernible face, but its limbs were long, hanging to its sides to what would be the knees on a man. It was bestial in appearance, much like a grizzly bear, save for the fact it had no snout, no eyes, and yet it seemed to be staring out at them from untold eyes as it sent a long, trailing feeler toward Leonard, who raced to get away from it, shouting and jumping.
"Use your weapons!" Stroud said, and they all began to fire on the beast, Kendra sending up a cloud of gas.
"This way, this way!" Leonard was shouting and rushing on, deeper into the pit.
"No! We stand and fight!" Stroud shouted, but Wiz bolted after Leonard, fearing for the man. Kendra felt the tentacle of the beast swipe by her face as she showered it with gas. A thousand screeching voices seemed to be coming from the creature as Stroud grabbed her and pushed her along the path Leonard and Wisnewski had taken.
"Out of here now!" he shouted through his comlink, and she obeyed without hesitation, following in Wiz's footsteps. Stroud, hol
ding firm to the skull, raising it in the direction of the gas fog and the monster that was pursuing them, saw little creatures scampering about his feet and he kicked out at the hairy, sharp-toothed beasts, sending several flying and rolling off in balls of fur. A final one he crushed below his boot, hearing the explosion of its insides as he fired several more darts into the larger, heaving form in the fog.
"Come on, Abe! Now, away!" she shouted for him, and Stroud rushed to fulfill her request without looking back.
Stroud had wanted to take the ship by storm, to battle the first obstacle for the right to enter the ship at what appeared the easiest access. Yet the skull was strangely quiet, the light in it depressingly weak, and it was as if Esruad had abandoned him. Stroud was also disappointed in Wiz and Leonard. Only Kendra had stood her ground in the face of the horror that had approached them.
Kendra was kneeling over Leonard where he had dropped, his breathing too heavy. He'd taken in too much oxygen and was hyperventilating. Wiz stood over his friend, worried, offering words of encouragement and calm to Leonard. When he saw Stroud step from the shadows with the skull in his hands, Wisnewski said, "You shouldn't've forced Sam back here. You shouldn't've, Stroud."
Abe Stroud ignored the remark, catching his own breath, staring down the length of the maze that appeared to go on forever.
"Where's your friend in the skull now?" asked Wiz. "Where is Esruad?"
"Esssssss-rrrrrrrruuu-aaaaadd!" The walls of the labyrinth shook with the eerie voice of the evil here. It was the voice of Ubbrroxx. Stroud saw something moving along the passageway of the underground tunnel, just ahead. It was marshaling its army of horrors against them. The enemy knew every chamber and every underground passage intimately.
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