The Stone Warriors by Michael Northrop

Author:Michael Northrop
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Ren watched in horror as the flat stone of the wall began to bulge outward into a bubble of pale stone about six feet up. She didn’t realize it was a face until the sunken eyeholes took shape and the neck began to push outward underneath it. Then came the shoulders, then the chest.

The head pulled free of the wall with a wet tearing noise that sounded more like meat than stone. The rest of the body dragged itself free of the wall, leaving no indentation, no indication whatsoever that a section of stone the size and shape of a ragged human body had been removed.

Its steps were stiff and uneven. Chunks of stone flaked off and fell to the ground with each bend and flex. The creature stopped, crossed its stony arms in front of it, and pointed its featureless visage toward the sky above.

There was a soft cracking sound.

“Turn away!” called Todtman, covering his face with his hands and turning his back on the macabre spectacle. As he turned, his bad leg gave out and he crumpled to the ground.

Ren rushed over to help, but as she did, there was a muffled crash — like thunder heard from under a blanket — and rock exploded outward from the Walker. Limestone dust turned the entire pit white, and here and there Ren felt the sting of larger chunks against her skin.

She heard Alex cry out but could see nothing. Her eyes stung from the powdered stone, and when she tried to call Alex’s name, thick white dust filled her mouth. She convulsed into hacking coughs and covered her face.

As the heavy dust settled to the ground, she risked a peek back. The Walker’s true form was revealed. It looked like death itself: a ragged mummy — or most of it, anyway. The wrapping was mostly torn away, and some pieces of the body were missing. A few of the fingers were just gone, but the larger gaps had been filled in with clay and pale stone. Half its skull was clay, much of its torso was stone, and none of it quite fit or matched. For eyes, it had two white stones.

And yet it moved. And yet, somehow, it lived. It took a step forward and drew in a long, rasping breath. In the warm desert air of the pit, Ren went cold to the tips of her toes. As the Walker’s chest expanded, a few remaining sections of rib rose beneath the shabby wrapping. Even the limestone that made up the rest of its chest seemed to flex and breathe.

Ren, on the other hand, felt as if a horse was sitting on her chest. Fear constricted her breathing. The other Walkers had looked scary, sure, but they’d also looked alive. They’d come back, and they had the skin and clothing to prove it — even if that skin was sometimes burned or swollen.

Todtman spoke softly, his voice colored by both awe and fear: “This Death Walker is older than the others, beyond ancient.

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