The Living Dead (Book 1): Contagion (7 page)

            “Don’t touch me! And Yun Li will make his own decision about when he goes home.”

            Larry leaned over and spoke in her ear. “Get the old man out of here now. Keep your mouth shut. I might pay you a visit later. Wear what you had on earlier. I liked that.”

            Virginia felt a chill of revulsion. She realized the normal rules of civilization were breaking down in Wells too. None of the men in the group would meet her eyes. They didn’t want to oppose Larry, who seemed to be in charge.

            She looked up at him. “Do not break into my house again. Do not come near me.” She turned to the rest of them. “All of you need to re-think what you’re doing. This is a mistake.”

            Yun Li had moved closer to her and he now took her arm protectively. Together they turned and fought their way back through the drifts. They parted at her front door, which he insisted on walking her to.

            “Take precautions young lady. That porcine fellow has designs of some sort on you. Where is your husband?”

            She sighed. “I don’t know. He may still be in DC. We are- not together anymore.”

            “I was aware of that but hoped things might have changed. One never knows. Again, take care and good night.”

            She never saw him alive again.

Chapter 8

“
What’s past is prologue.”

The Tempest

-William Shakespeare 

            Night had fallen. The wind gusted hard, whipping the snow into a howling, icy maelstrom that shook the house and blew down the chimney causing the fire in the fireplace to flicker and pop. Only CNN was still on the air. They broadcasted what looked like a pre-recorded loop of reports, no new information. She turned the TV off, made sure the handgun at her side hadn’t slipped down the sofa cushion, opened Bill’s envelope and began to read

           
The following account is taken from the writings of Fray Miguel de Sahagun, a friar who accompanied Columbus on his first voyage to the New World.

Anno Domini 1492

            The Admiral prepared to leave and return to Spain, leaving several behind, including myself for I wished to know more of this people of Hispaniola and to bring them out of the darkness and into the light of Christ. Let me describe for the curious reader the appearance of these people. I have observed more men than women, although it may be that their women are secluded in some place. They are light brown in skin and well made with strong limbs. Their straight black hair is coarse and worn short. I observed no beards among them. Some I saw with wounds on their bodies. I made signs to ask the reason for these and they made me to understand that on other islands they have enemies of whom they seem to have great fear and are reluctant to speak but I will speak more on this later. Although they went about naked as God made them, they painted their bodies, some black, some red or other colors and did not seem to know of their nakedness. Indeed, when we gave their leader a suit of clothes that he seemed to greatly desire, he was quick to divide them up, giving the doublet to one, the ruff to another and the trunk hose to one of his wives, while he wore the soft cap on his own head.  I did not observe greed in these people, even when we gave them glass beads and other trinkets. Marvelous excitement was seen when they received these simple gifts but they quickly passed them around to their fellows for all to enjoy. They seemed to me to have the makings of good servants and Christians, as they are intelligent and hospitable. I spoke to them of our Lord Jesu Christ and of His divine resurrection but they drew back with dark looks and I knew I had not conveyed the wondrous story properly. I resolved to try to explain more fully in time.

            Let my reader know that I was given to understand that these people, who call themselves the Taino, once lived in villages near to the coast but of late have made their abode more in the interior regions of Hispaniola. This is not because of a desire to be close to the wondrous mountains we have observed from a distance but out of fear of the enemies of which I have promised to speak more.

            Much talk of monsters was bandied about amongst the sailors, as all their ilk I found them to be superstitious in the extreme. No monsters have been found in these lands but for the human monsters I will describe. The gentle Taino call them the Carib and do not speak their name except in hushed tones and then only very reluctantly. By gestures and other means, I was given to understand these men come from the south in large canoes that hold 70 or 80 men although I have not seen canoes this large among the Taino. In appearance, they are similar to the Taino but wear their hair long. They are said to raid and plunder much from the Taino, including women and children of whom they make unspeakable use. I mean to say that they eat the flesh of these innocents. According to my hosts, no one is safe from the Carib.

            Now patient reader, what I have to tell you next is of these Carib and what I observed of them and the Taino. One night, several weeks after the Admiral sailed for Spain, I found my hosts preparing to leave their homes and move even deeper into the interior of the island. They said it is now the time of the moon when the Carib sail in search of plunder and food. I noticed they did not bother to take such livestock as they had penned but left them with water to drink. I was told the Carib do not bother with such meat. We moved quietly in the velvety darkness, my hosts sure footed from long traveling these paths and ascended into trees well stocked in advance with the sharpened sticks that are all they use for battle. The infants among them stayed nestled to their mothers’ bosoms, but the older children were armed, some with the sharp sticks, while others were given half gourds on which animal skin was stretched taut for a purpose I shall reveal in time.

            After a time, I heard stealthy footfalls approach. At a signal that I was unable to see, the Taino began to rain down the sharpened sticks on the Carib, for it was they who approached below. Some were struck and killed but others began to climb the trees and snatch the women and children. The Carib in the trees flung those captured to the ground and other warriors carried them away. The cries of the children were heart wrenching. The sounds of battle began to die away as dawn crept into the sky. The Carib had departed with their human prizes yet we remained sheltered in the branches. I began to climb down to relieve myself whence my host took my arm and gestured fiercely to me to stay in the tree. There were no more warriors below, only the bodies of the fallen, yet we waited.

           
Something crashed in the driveway. She put the papers down and opened the blind. The trashcan lay on its side, rolling back and forth in the wind. I’ll pick it up in the morning. She resumed reading.

            What I tell you next is true. The bodies of the slain Carib began to twitch and then slowly rise to their feet. Soon they staggered about under the trees. Though they scratched at the base of the trunks, they were unable to climb in their present state. I saw other Carib bodies stumble from the forest where they had fallen after dying of their wounds and join their dead fellows. Some will say they had never been dead, only wounded and stunned but let my reader consider the grievous and fatal wounds the bodies bore in their bellies and breasts. I looked at my host but he was watching the bodies intently. Again, a signal was given that I was unable to perceive and the children holding the skin covered gourds scampered down from the trees, showing no fear of the slain Carib. These children, with light step and an air of merriment, began to beat their hands upon the gourds producing drumming sounds that the Carib appeared to hear for they began to stumble clumsily after the children who frisked about before them and led them farther into the green forest. After a time the Taino climbed down from the trees and quietly followed the children. We came to a clearing with many large and medium sized stones strewn about the ground. The children were still drumming and skillfully evading the attempts of the Carib to capture them when one, a small girl, stumbled on a stone and fell. A Carib was upon her quickly, tore an arm from her small body and began to eat the flesh. The others immediately closed in to partake whence the Taino warriors took the stones from the ground and cast them at the Carib, knocking them to the ground and then, taking the larger stones, smashed their heads to fragments, the remains of the Carib emitting a most foul and corrupt stench. I noted they also treated the body of the fallen child thus. All this was accomplished efficiently and with an air of familiarity for the task. The women with the small children watched, unmoved by the spectacle. The Taino now began a weary march back to their village, leaving those behind who were to dispose of the bodies. Amazed I made many inquiries about the events of the night but found my hosts unwilling to discuss the evening until they had slept. I too, was exhausted but images of the extraordinary night stayed in my thoughts and prevented sleep. Over the next several days I was able to extract some explanation for what I had seen but my hosts’ previous taciturnity on the subject had returned and I feel my information is still incomplete. I will set down what I know.

            The Taino explained to me that the Carib are diseased in a way that makes it unbearable for other peoples to be around them. Their tribe is made up almost entirely of male warriors. They eat some of the women they capture on their nighttime raids and keep some for breeding. Of the offspring produced by the captive women, the female infants are eaten while the males are raised to become warriors. The Carib feel that women can always be captured and think it a waste to raise them from infants. As for the remarkable reanimation I witnessed, the Carib have not always been thus but after congress with the “black men with shining sticks” * have become monstrous as seen. The disease referred to before causes their bodies to rise after their spirit has fled and they continue to lust for human flesh. The bodies are especially attracted by sounds and seem to be unable to resist the call of the drums I saw used by the children. The only way to dispatch these bodies is to destroy the head. It was obvious from the distaste the Taino showed when I questioned them that they thought my inquiries the height of bad manners. I was unable to obtain further information from them on this topic and judged it best to cease inquiry.

            Researcher’s note: Fray de Sahagun did not live to return to Spain but died from “a fever” just before the return of the Spanish ships. Sailors salted the body and entombed it in a rough wooden coffin for the return voyage. They noted the “wondrous foul” smell emanating from the badly decomposed body and the broken state of the friar’s skull.   

            *It has been noted that the natives mentioned these “black men” more than once and were able to provide some of the skillfully wrought spears they left behind. Later examined by metallurgists in Spain, the spear tips were found to be composed of a complex blend of metals used to forge spears in African Guinea at the time.

            Virginia stopped reading and leaned back, sliding the documents into the envelope. No cure was mentioned for the disease the friar described, which seemed similar to what was happening now but with significant differences. It sounded like the Carib were living carriers of the disease and could transmit it to others but didn’t necessarily die from it although it did reanimate their bodies when they died. When the cannibalistic Carib became infected, did the disease mutate to now cause the reanimated to also become cannibals? The narrative indicated that the natives believed the illness arrived with “black men” from Africa? So at least two different civilizations “discovered” the new world before Columbus: the Vikings and now West Africans. 

            The wind continued to howl as the night grew later and her restlessness increased. There were still several documents in the packet but she didn’t feel like reading anymore. She searched the internet looking for diseases originating in West Africa. She found warnings for yellow fever, typhoid, dengue and many others but nothing sounded close to what the friar described. She did stumble onto a description of African burial customs. A “correct” funeral was one in which the body was removed from the house of death through a specially made hole in the wall. The body was then taken on a circuitous route to the place of burial and thorns placed on the path to discourage the dead from returning home. Maybe that was a clue to the existence of an illness they preferred to keep hidden. She could see how a people troubled with reanimated, possibly hungry dead might want to stop them from coming back.

            Without warning, a house alarm began to shriek. Then several more. Virginia quickly turned out the lamp and grabbed the handgun. Staying close to the floor she crept over to the dining room window and looked out. Slow moving dark shapes advanced through the streets and yards. They clustered around the Lang’s house as the alarm continued to blare. The front door opened as someone, she guessed Todd, stepped outside and aimed a shotgun at the group. They never stopped, just kept walking forward. She heard shouts and then gun fire. One of the figures staggered but didn’t go down. More shots rang out then Todd’s screams blended with the sound of the alarm as the infected pulled him down. More of them poured in through the open front door.

            More and more staggered into the streets. Where were they all coming from?  She realized that the alarms were attracting them. They continued to mass, pressing against doors and windows. More of her neighbors came outside with guns to warn off the intruders only to be mobbed and taken down as the infected swarmed their houses.

            There was a meaty slap on the window. She pressed back against the wall, trying not to make a sound. The hand continued to beat on the glass. A low moaning came from her front porch as other hands joined the first and she knew they were surrounding the house. She was shaking, biting her lips to keep from screaming. She closed her eyes. Remembered prayers, long unsaid, came into her mind. “Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness and for the glory of thy namesake, deliver us from evil.” The pounding grew louder. She gripped the gun tightly, knowing she didn’t have enough bullets to get them all.  At a particularly loud blow she opened her eyes to see Todd Lang, his face pressed against the glass. The skin from his face was torn off starting at the ear, all the way down his jaw, rows of teeth gleaming like pearls. His son, five year old Kevin, joined him, small hands smearing blood on the windows as he groped for a way in. Glass shattered in the back of the house and then an especially loud house alarm keened nearby. More shots were fired as screams erupted next door at the Li’s. The banging on her house lessened. She couldn’t see any of them at the front windows anymore. She got to her feet, grabbed the blanket off the sofa and ran up the staircase. Pulling down the trap door she climbed into the attic and grappled with the stairs, finally getting them up and closing the door.