“Marvin didn’t see nothing else up there. Course he didn’t have the huevos to really look, but with the lights and all that shit, it’s probably a good place to go looking,” Carlos added.
“We’ll do that. Thanks.” I waved to the guys, glad to put some distance between me and Javier’s stink. Give me a dead body any day. “I’ll handle this.” They nodded as I nudged McConnell into motion.
We walked in silence to the mausoleum, Javier and Carlos’s eyes on us the entire way. Still during business hours, we strolled through the front doors like we belonged there. A wave of subtle, permeating decay met us at the entrance. McConnell covered his nose, his eyes narrowing. I drew in a deep breath. No matter how bad it smelled, it wasn’t Javier. That was an improvement.
I led the way down the quiet, carpeted halls, passing the closed chapel on the way. The bronze placards stood out against the marbled white faces of the occupied crypts. Their sparse memorials were a far cry from the grandiose decorations that surrounded the graves outside. With little more than a few brass rings holding small, brown vases filled with wilted flowers, there wasn’t much to be seen. The mausoleum had an air of solemnness to it.
Unlike the rest of the cemetery where nature worked to reclaim what it lost, life springing up all around, the crypts were barren and cold. No matter how many corpses were raised to traipse about, there would never be life here.
Bummed out by the mausoleum, I hurried and found the stairs to the upper level. Taking them two at a time, I arrived to find the same, somber arrangement as below. If nothing else, death was consistent around here.
While not a massive area to search, I didn’t have a clue as to what I was looking for. However, after a moment surveying the floor, it became pretty obvious that whatever we were looking for, it had to involve the crypts if we were gonna find anything at all.
The deep red, carpeted floor was mostly clear and pristine. There were a couple of neutral-colored couches that sat at opposite ends of the room, but nothing else to block the thoroughfare. On the walls behind each was a large, stained glass window. Motes of dust floated in the gentle light that filtered through their colored faces.
At a loss, I gestured to the marbled squares which ran five high, almost to the ceiling. The bottom crypt was doubled, the lower half sunk into the floor.
“Let’s check out the crypts and see what we can find.”
McConnell shrugged and started imitating me as I ran my hands across the smooth marble aimlessly. Monkey see, monkey do.
I moved off in the opposite direction from the wizard, assuming I was wasting my time. It’s not like I could pop open the crypts and look inside-at least not during the day. As such, it was a half-assed search at best. Frustrated, I moved through the halls speeding up as I got further along. My eyes glazed over at the sameness of everything, the whitewash of marble and gold. The monotony was only broken by the rare picture of a loved one taped to the crypt face, and the occasional crucifix or two. Figuring the night guy had too much to drink to know what the hell he was talking about, I felt I was sure this was turning out to be a snipe hunt. To counter the humdrum sameness, I paused and glanced out the window. As I looked out over the sprawling cemetery, I saw Carlos and Javier. They were back at work, continuing to dig the same hole. From my vantage point, I could see a large number of graves the zombies must have risen from. Patches of brown dirt marred the green fields, way too many to have been recent burials.
I shook my head at the amount and drew in a deep breath. The air by the window was sour, fetid, damp even. I worked my tongue around a bit, trying to build up some saliva to wash away the taste. It wasn’t leaving. I ran my hand around the edges of the window, thinking maybe it was just a draft stirring the smell up, but I didn’t feel anything. Out of nowhere, another thick wave wafted up and dusted my nose, the scent way thicker where I was standing than it had been anywhere else in the mausoleum. It caught my attention.
I spun in a slow circle, taking in everything. That’s when I noticed a scrap of something dark caught between the crimson carpet and the one of the bottom crypt faces. I bent down and snatched it up. When I did, an even thicker wave of decay assaulted my nose without mercy. I covered my mouth and examined the scrap, realizing it was a piece of rotten flesh, dead so long it had shriveled and blackened. Discarding the skin, then continuing my examination, I saw the thick carpet had been pressed down somewhat, right in front of the crypt.
If there was something to find here, this was it.
Quietly, my eyes on the crypt face, I went down the hall and called out for McConnell. After a moment of what seemed like obvious hesitation, he wandered over. I put my finger to my lips and motioned I’d found something. His eyes narrowed and he followed me back in silence. A shimmering gray energy flickered at his fingertips.
Back at the crypt, I squatted in front of it, running my hands along the seam. That’s when I noticed the bolts that held the crypt face closed were missing. Two small wires with looped ends were slipped through the bolt holes and held the crypt closed from the inside. They were practically invisible until I was right on top of them. This had to be something related to our undead infestation.
I gestured for McConnell to keep an eye out. I shooed away the images of falling silver coins that flashed through my mind, and sank my fingers into the cracks between the crypts. With a gentle tug, the face came free in my hands. The stench that had alerted me to the crypt, drifted out thick, hitting me head on. I gagged as I set the marble plate down. The nastiness settling into my throat, I stepped away to catch my breath. After a moment, when I was better prepared to face the stink, I looked beyond the facing to see only a dark hole. There was nothing discernable beyond that.
Not waiting for McConnell to man up, I drew my gun and stepped forward, leaning in to peer into the double crypt. I expected to see a cement floor just a few feet below where I stood, but was surprised to see nothing but more blackness. As I surveyed the darkness, a quiet rumbling echoed up through the crypt.
“There’s a passage here,” I whispered. Brave man that he was, McConnell motioned for me to go first.
I stuck my tongue out and turned back to the hole. If Baalth hadn’t been so insistent that I not hurt his pet, I’d have pushed the bastard in head first. I had to admit, I was still tempted. Only the strange way Baalth had looked, his pent up anger boiling just behind his eyes, kept me from doing it.
There was no doubt in my mind Baalth would kill me. Even worse, it wouldn’t be a quick death. He’d make me suffer in ways I didn’t feel comfortable even thinking about. McConnell wasn’t worth all that, but it sure felt good to imagine. With a big smile on my lips, I got on with the task at hand.
Uncertain of how far the passage went down, I holstered my gun to free my hands. While thinking I was gonna regret doing so, I crouched at the crypt entrance and talked myself into climbing inside. After a deep breath to calm my nerves, I grabbed the edge and swung my feet over and let them drop into the darkness. Even at six- three, I hit open air, my feet dangling. I glared up at McConnell.
“You better follow me down, cowboy.” With no point in worrying if he didn’t, I let go.
In freefall for several harrowingly long seconds, I discovered the bottom was easily over a hundred feet down. I hit the ground hard. The air was knocked from my lungs in a huff as I landed in a heap, but I didn’t feel anything break.
Unsure of what might be in there with me, I hopped to my feet fast. With solid rock beneath me and blackness all around, I inched forward as I caught my breath, drawing in deep gulps of the rancid smelling air. Something dead was in here. At least I knew we were on the right track.
Off a ways into the blackness, the distance hard to judge, there was a dim, flickering glow. To get my bearings, I looked up, the shimmer from the mausoleum above doing little to chase away the dark. Right then, McConnell appeared above me, momentarily blocking the light as he floated gently down beside me.
I growled at him, my voice low. “You can levitate?”
He nodded, his smile glistening in the gloom.
Bastard. “You could have said something.”
“You did all right.” His grin grew wider. He was enjoying this too much.
Ignoring him, and the urge to put a bullet in his eye, I drew my gun once more and headed off down the tunnel at a creep. The carved stone passage was almost tall enough for me to stand upright and the sides were about a foot and a half from each of my shoulders. I moved forward slow, McConnell’s scuffling feet behind me letting me know he was still there. His presence was reassuring, let me tell you.
What’s that old saying, between a cock and a hard place? The enemy behind, the unknown ahead, I was feeling mighty vulnerable.
After about fifty yards, the glow was just in front of us, illuminating the start of a bigger chamber. I eased
