Cauldron by Colin Wicking

Author:Colin Wicking
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Nazi Zombies, Zombie humour, Satire, Outback Australia
ISBN: 9781925442984
Publisher: Vivid Publishing
Published: 2016-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

20

“Let the dead … stay dead.”

(The Walking Dead, 1936)

THE door to the stairwell at the end of the hall stood slightly ajar. Jazz nudged it fully open with the head of her axe. The door squeaked on its hinges. Jazz stepped through. Viper followed her in, onto a bare concrete landing. In here, the tomb-like mustiness that pervaded the entire complex was more pronounced, as though the sour air inside had not stirred for a very long time. Half a dozen stained concrete stairs, illuminated by a single yellow bulb on the ceiling, led down to another landing where the stairs kicked back the other way.

Behind Vittachi, back out in the hall, White Suit said, ‘These take us to the next level. We exit and circle through the halls to the opposite side. The stairwell to the deepest level is behind this one.’

Viper looked at Jazz.

How does Fendler have your photograph? he wanted to know. Her appearance was beginning to match that of the woman in the photo, he noticed. The wild hair. The stained clothes.

Instead of asking the question, he said, ‘Go.’

Jazz looked down over the rusted handrail. There didn’t appear to be any ravenous zombies lurking in the gloom at the bottom of the stairs. Where the hell did they all go? Gripping the axe, she started down, Viper close behind.

Entering the stairwell behind them, Vittachi said to Viper, ‘None of this makes any sense, you know. You shot that thing in the head about twenty times. There’s no way his brain got through that in one piece. It would’ve turned to mush.’ He waited for Viper to respond, and when he didn’t, said, ‘I’m sorry, but I simply don’t buy the supernatural thing. There has to be a logical explanation for all this. An infection. A parasite.’

Without looking back, Viper quietly said, ‘Be silent or I will shoot you in the head twenty times. Your brain will stop working. As will your mouth.’

Vittachi shut up. He didn’t want to be the next Larry, but this thing was really bugging him now. The idea that the Nazis had at least tried to fool with the dark forces of the occult had been a mainstay of pop culture for years, but to seriously suggest –

Vittachi pulled up on the second landing so unexpectedly that the six mercenaries directly behind him collided. They glared as he waved them by to wait for White Suit to come down the stairs. Down below, Viper and Jazz were already at the exit door. Axe in hand, Viper opened it a crack, just enough to stick his head into the hall outside. Out there, the lights blinked. He opened the door wider for a better look.

As White Suit joined Vittachi on the landing, Viper quietly closed the door and looked up, holding up three fingers.

‘They just stand in the hall,’ he reported.

Ignoring the bearded man beside him, White Suit quickly inspected the remaining members of the assault team, two of whom were now burdened with the extra backpacks of their dead comrades.

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