Pyramid of the Dead: A Zombie Novel by John McCuaig Page A

Empire, formed their battle lines less than a hundred yards outside the city walls. All of t hese hardened soldiers had faced many an enemy before but the sight before them must have sent shivers racing along their spines . Charging at them down the lush , green hillside was an army of thousands of undead men and women . There was no shouting, no blaring of trumpets and no banging of drums like the charge back at the port of Puna . Death was head ing right for them , and it came all too silent ly .
    All that lay between the army of Cuzco and the army of the under world were the Spaniards , and it seemed that they had now changed their minds about waiting for the word of Pizarro before they moved. The sight of an army of Huacas charging towards them, sent them running; some riding those fine white steeds as they headed straight for the gates to the city. Minco k new they would find them locked. It was now all too simple; t hey would have no option but to help his own men in defeating the army of Supay .
    Minco took his place; he stood high up on the city wall to see the battle unfold . He watched with disgust as some of his men drop ped their weapons at the horrendous sight before them and r a n back towards the supposed safety of Cuzco. Minco could well un derstand their fear , but he vowed that he would sear ch out and punish tho se cowards once the undead had been defeated. The army must always be loyal and disciplined; Minco would have had no choice but to make an example of them. That example would be their deaths.
    However, for now, i t was time for the battle to begin. On Minco’s order , the sun light was nearly blocked out as hundreds of soldiers sent w ave upon wave of sharp edged stones flying through the air towards the rapidly advancing horde. As they reloaded their slingshots, Minco could see that t his first attack in the Battle of Cuzco had been far from successful; it was barely worth the effort .
    All that w ould stop the undead was severe damage to the head or brain. Rocks bouncing off their faces, necks and bodies had next to no effect , they did n o t even slow down their bloodthirsty charge . By the time they were too near , l ess than two hundred of them , well under a tenth of their total number had fa ll en under the barrage of stone . The slingshot attack , usually one of their most potent tactics, had clearly failed and the undead army eagerly raced deep into the main body of his soldiers .
    Minco watched from his high vantage point as axes, truncheons and staffs fought against the jaws, teeth and hands of the undead . It was not a fair fight - far from it. The soldiers of the Ukhu Pacha flooded over their terrified foes , ripping and tearing flesh as they moved forward like a great flood towards the majestic city . Even from his distant perch , Minco watched as arterial fountains of blood sho t up high into the sky. H e listened to the wild screams of terror , pain and death as the y blended into a long chorus of unbelievable horror that vibrated through out the valley . Then suddenly, a line of the Spaniards changed the song.
    Bang! Bang! Bang!
    The fire sticks, the ir long muskets , fired over and over again , deep into the mass of rushing bodies . The shots they sent out were indiscriminate, both the dead and the living fell motionless under the se volley s of hot lead. The foreign soldiers did not care who or what they hit . T hey just wanted to keep the advancing forces at bay and in their mad panic; they had no thoughts of separating the undead from the living . Their shots may have slowed the advance down but there was no way they could ever stop it. S till they came in seemingly never ending wave s . No matter how many were felled , t he numbers were constantly replenished as their victims rose up again , taking the places of the fallen as new servants of the great Supay.
    One young Spaniard rose from his knee after reloading , but before he could lift up his muske t , he found himself face