The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 7

  "Shite en me hosen!" cried Mbu.
  "What?" asked his father who seemed unperturbed by the newly arrived soldiers.
  "Did I stutter?  Who are those people pointing guns at us?"
  "Oh them.  That's just the Centimator and its crew.  They patrol the grounds to help keep us safe.  Hey! Soldiers, I've got everything under control."
  "We heard a gun shot."
  "Yeah, that was me.  A zombie was attacking these two boys and I shot her.  You guys can run along now."
The soldiers loaded up back into the vehicle and drove off into the night.
  "Actually dad, that was Helen.  She was with us."
  Father Ng didn't say a word.  He just stood there stunned by the news.  He put his hands face up in front of him and stared at them.  After a while they balled into fists.  "I committed murder.  God help me."
  "Dad.  You didn't know.  It's dark out here.  I mean, we're safe."  Mbu tried to comfort his dad.
  "Yes you are safe.  You should go into the complex and see your mother.  She's been so worried about you. She will be so glad you're alive and well.  It's good to see you too, Hewlett.  I've got to finish my shift, but I'll be in later.  We can talk then.  We're staying in room 407."  Mbu and his father hugged and then Mbu and Hewlett entered the gate.
  When they got to the room, Mbu knocked.  His mother opened the door and immediately tears sprang to her eyes.  They hugged for a long time.  "I've been worried sick!  I can't believe you're back!  Hey, Hewlett. How are you?"
  "I'm good, Mrs. Ng."
  "Hey mom, can we shower?  We smell like a cheese even the French wouldn't eat."  She pointed them in the direction of the bathroom and they went off to clean themselves.  By the time they were clean she had prepared some food for them and they sat around the table talking over food.  At 4am, Father Ng joined them at the table and joined in on the current discussion.
  "When we got here, this big old military vehicle drove up and all these guys got out and pointed guns at us," mentioned Hewlett.
  "Yeah, that sounds like the Centimator."
  "Why do they call that thing the Centimator anyway?" asked Hewlett.

  "It is a master of destruction, or so they say," answered Father Ng.

  "Then why not call it the Decimator?" asked Enma.

  "Well, honey, to decimate literally means to 'destroy one tenth of.'"

  "Oh.  Well, I guess there's still at least one tenth of your language that I am unfamiliar with."

  "Well, then we've gotta decimate your unfamiliarity.  Besides, most people couldn't even tell you what decimate really means."

  "So the 'centi' in Centimator is like in 'centipede'?" asked Enma.

  "Yeah.  See, you know English better than most Americans if you can figure out the linguistics of words."  He put a hand on her knee.

  "So are there such things as decapedes?" she asked with a grin.

  "No, but that's quite funny!"  They all laughed.

  "They ride the short bus," added Hewlett.

  "Their growth has been im-pede-d," Mbu threw in.  Before long, the sun rose and they were all dog tired.  They all slept through breakfast and woke up at lunch time.  For lunch they went to the mess hall.  It was taco Tuesday.  They all sat at a table together.
  "Don't forget to pray for your food," cautioned Father Ng.
  "I already did," answered Mbu.
  "You already prayed?" asked Father Ng.
  "I already forgot to," said Mbu with a smile.
  "They gave me enough food to kill a monkey.  It's a good thing I have no simian grievances at the moment," Hewlett pointed out.
  Mbu went to get a drink.  While he was gone, Hewlett took his bag of chips.
  "Where's my bag of chips?" Mbu asked when he returned to the table.
  "It's right next to my bag of chips, unless someone stole yours."
  Mbu punched Hewlett in the shoulder.  "Give me that back, mouth breather," he said as he grabbed it back from Hewlett.
  "It wasn't me, it was the seven-tentacled octopus!" said Hewlett.  This was an old joke between them which involves a fugitive squid and what he would say to the police about his wife's murder.
  Mbu's siblings were glad to see him back.
  "Yo, bro," said Yanluo, sitting right next to his older brother.
  "I'm so glad we're all back together again like one big happy family," beamed Yama.
  Mbu didn't use a napkin, but wiped his hands on his shirt.  His mother noticed this.  "Do you always wipe your hands on your shirt?" she asked him.
  "No, sometimes I wipe them on my pants."  Both him and Hewlett cracked up at that one.  Enma rolled her eyes.  Mbu's siblings also thought it was hilarious.  Father Ng shook his head, suppressing a grin.
  Mbu didn't like using ice with his beverages because it invariably watered it down.  "You know, how come when your drink is room temperature, people say it's warm?  And then when your food is room temperature, they say it's cold?  It's all in your head, people.  It's the same temperature, different ideals."
  "Oh yeah, look at Urban Confucius here.  Yes, please share with us more of your wisdom, master guru," Hewlett mocked his best friend.
  Not even an hour after they had eaten, Mbu and Hewlett were both in the bathroom in the mess hall in different stalls.  At Code Gray, the bathrooms were called 'heads'.  The tacos had done them wrong.
  "Why does the sign on the wall in here say, 'Do Not Discuss Confidential Information In This Area'?" asked Hewlett about the sign above the bathroom's trash can.
  "Well, this used to be a military base.  This particular building had civilian contractors working in it.  They couldn't have military people accidentally giving away confidential information in a place where people without the proper clearance could hear.  Think of it this way, they're basically saying, 'Don't talk about shit while you're taking a shit or you'll be in deep shit.'"
  "Oh.  Well how the hell did you get so smart?"
  "Shit, I don't know.  I just made that shit up."
  "Oh.  Well, I'm gonna get outta here.  It stinks like hell."
  "If you can't stand the shit, get out of the shitter."
  Just then, sirens blared all over Code Gray.  Some sort of emergency was going down.  The two made like they were in an ass wiping contest with a million dollar prize and went to see what was up.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 6

  Father Fen-Chang noticed two people in the fields that stood out to him.  They stood out as not being zombies because one was limping and the other was helping him walk.  That didn't strike him as zombie behavior.  He stood up and pointed out his window.  "I think those two people are still alive.  We need to stop and pick them up."
  The bus driver curved over to the right in the direction of the survivors.  About 15 yards away were some approaching undead.  As soon as the bus stopped, Father Mucker jumped off holding a tire iron.  Father Fen-Chang helped the two survivors onto the bus.  Father Mucker muttered a prayer.  "Lord Jesus, help me."  With his southern accent, 'Lord Jesus' sounded like 'Lowered Juh-hee-zuss-uh'.  He swung the tire iron and caught a zombie in the eye socket.  This motion caused the left side of the zombie's skull to rip off, exposing the liquefied brain which oozed out.  The former human being hit the grass like a ton of bricks.
  Seeing that everyone was safely aboard, Father Mucker turned to get back on the bus.  One of the other zombies grabbed his cassock.  With a quick motion, he sunk the tire iron into the top of the zombie's skull.  "May your soul rest eternally with God."
  When the bus started going again, it was time to assess the condition of the newcomers.  Father Fen-Chang asked the non-bleeding man his name.
  "My name is Liam Moor.  I am the lab assistant for Darion Morris here.  He's the scientist that was working on that whole smell of fear thing at Xi' an.  I'm just a pair of hands really.  There was some kind of explosion and Darion here got some shrapnel in him.  Nothing fatal or mortal or nothing.  But his leg is hurt so I've been helping him around.  We managed to find a breach in the wall, that wasn't crawling with zombies and we got out.  I really have no idea where we were going, but y'all showed on up so it's all good."
  Darion opened his eyes.  Father Fen-Chang tried to give him some water.  There was a first-aid kit and Liam had enough medical training to know how to suture Darion's wounds.  After having eaten some of the rations on the bus, he seemed to have gained some strength.
  The bus drove on through the night.  The next day, survivors on the bus took shifts driving on their way to a safe haven in Tibet they heard about on the radio.  Liam wasn't so sure traveling the Himilayas was a good idea.  "Them bollocks are a biznitch!"

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 5

  Father Ng hadn't been on watch for very long when the inevitable happened.  There was always the random zombie wandering around, but this time there were three.  He whispered a silent prayer and took the safety off his shotgun.
  His night vision goggles showed him what appeared to be two males of medium build and a flail looking female.  God knows what fate had befallen the female's arm, but she only had one.  She must have seen the lights of the camp because she started to approach.
  It went against his beliefs, but he had a duty to protect his fellow survivors so he aimed the shotgun straight at her forehead and took the shot.  Her head obliterated and her body fell.
  What happened next confused Father Ng.  The two males hit the ground and crawled around aimlessly.  Zombies have no fear.  You can shoot one in the chest and he'll still keep coming at you.  Something wasn't right.  He grabbed a flashlight and turned off his goggles.  He turned the flashlight on and pointed it at the two males.  This got their attention.  They faced him, put their hands high up and cautiously approached.
  "Don't shoot!  We're unarmed!" yelled one of them.
  When they had gotten to within twenty feet of him, Father Ng pointed the shotgun away.  Tears rolled down his cheeks.  "Mbu?" he asked.
  "Dad?"
  "Mr. Ng?"
  Just then a huge, heavily armed vehicle crashed through the bushes and stopped right in front of the three men.  Soldiers exited the vehicle with a variety of weapons pointed at the group.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 4

  After their wall patrol shift, Father Fen-Chang and Father Mucker were transported by bus, back to Xi' an from Shaanxi.  Efforts were being made to have a more permanent station in Shaanxi so that volunteers could stay there to defend the wall from the oncoming undead.  As it was, every other day, there was a bus that went between the two cities to shuttle shift change replacements to and from the wall.
  Defense of the wall had so far kept Xi' an as a safe haven for survivors of the zombie outbreak.  Wall duty was highly regarded because it gave the people of the city a sense of security with the threat being so distant. The Great Wall of China was the first line of defense.  Of course, the walls around the city of Xi' an itself were an effective measure against attack as well.  There were shifts for guarding that last line of defense as well.
  Scientist were working tirelessly working on a strategy that someone had come up with.  It had been noted that the undead seemed to be attracted to the smell of fear.  The smell of fear is actually a survival mechanism, a pheromone put off to warn others of potential danger.  Most humans don't have an acute enough sense of smell to notice it.  To the zombies however, it is what tells them that prey are nearby.  This is how they differentiate between the living and the dead.
  An idea had been proposed to extract the smell of fear from any willing subjects.  Scientists were working on a way to do such a thing because it could be used as a diversion.  In the city of Xi' an is a rather large collection of life-sized terra cotta statues of soldiers.  If these statues could be sprayed with a concentrated solution of the smell of fear, it might act as a distraction should the perimeter of the city ever be breached.  It would hopefully give the inhabitants of the city enough time to evacuate to safety.
  The scientists were finally successful and the plan was implemented.  What no one knew was that today would be the day that the plan would be needed.  During the bus ride back to Xi' an, Father Fen-Chang started to notice people running around in the open.  That was highly unusual because most people were either holed up in the city or hiding in random spots all over China.  This was a bad sign.  The bus driver radioed ahead to the city, but no one answered.
  After having driven most of the way to the city, they could already see the billows of smoke taking flight from their once safe fortress.  There was no use going home.  Father Mucker suggested that the bus driver stop so that they could devise a new plan.  There were twelve people on the bus, all told.  They might have been the only twelve left from the city.  It was time to take decisive action.
  It was decided that the bus was their safest way of getting around.  The plan was to find another safe haven.  They would pick up any survivors they found along the way.  There was food and water on the bus.  There were also several tanks of gasoline.  The closest headquarters was in Tibet.  That was over 700 miles away, but it was their best bet.  Another huge obstacle was all the mountains.  It was with heavy heart that these weary travelers started on their journey.  Hundreds of people had been killed in Xi' an.  They would not be forgotten.  Many prayers were given to the hope that their evacuation plan had been a success.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 3

  "I smell like a cardboard tree," complained Mbu.
  "You're alive," I replied.  We had found an abandoned car which had an air freshener in it and we rubbed it all over ourselves to mask the smell of fear.  One other things is that we had found the old lady was still alive.  When we were in the building at the top of the hill, a zombie had gnawed on her fingers and she ran out of the building.  We all assumed she was dead, but we found her later on.
  You see, when she had been a cook in the Navy, she had a terrible accident which lost her her right arm.  This got her out of the Navy with disability for the rest of her life.  Anyway, it also got her a prosthetic arm.  Well, since the zombie had gnawed on it, it was useless as an appendage unless she wanted an ungulate's dexterity.  Now the three of us wander the desert in search of that safe haven we had heard of on the radio.  Well, to be more accurate, that's what me and Mbu are doing.  She still thinks we're aliens leading her to our mother ship to take her to Mars.
  Mbu was bored so he tried to strike up a conversation.  "So you say you were in the Navy, huh, Helen?"
  "Are you Shinies doing research on human culture so that you can live among us?"
  "Yeah, I guess you could say 'I have a dream'."
  "I was a cook on board a huge man-made metal vessel called an aircraft carrier."
  "Oh yeah?  I had a friend who had an uncle who was an admiral in the Navy in World War 2.  He was in charge of an entire fleet of destroyers.  The actions of his fleet were decisive in a major naval battle."
  I looked at Mbu incredulously.  "Wow.  You had a friend?"  He punched me on the shoulder.
  "Yeah, yeah.  You're not the only person I know.  My dad did move back to the States two years before yours did.  As a matter of fact, I met Desmond before you came back," explained Mbu.
  "Hm.  Can we rewind to the part where I asked you to tell me your life's story?" I jokingly asked.
  "No, but we can fast forward to the part where you wake up in a hospital."
  "Ooh, I'm so scared.  Hey Mbu, I gotta pee."
  "Pick a dune.  Any dune.  It's so dark out now, no one will see."
  Just then, Helen stopped us.  "There it is!"
  "There what is?" Mbu asked.
  "The mother ship.  We've found it!  You're finally gonna take me to Mars.  I'll be in the heavens!"  The quiet night time air was suddenly shattered by an ear splitting noise as Helen's head vaporized.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 2

  Father Ng stroked the scraggly whiskers of his mustache while looking at his wife, Enma, a young south African woman.  "I wonder what they called the Fu Manchu before Fu Manchu," he said thoughtfully.
  Enma caressed his wiry beard and said, "Maybe they called it the Theophilus Ng, old man."
  "Oh yeah, I'm six years older than you.  Bring me my cane."  They both laughed.  "Geez, you know, sometimes I wish my last name was longer."
  "Hm.  Theophilus Longer.  Yeah, that has a nice ring to it."  This time they laughed harder and longer.  Ever since the outbreak, the couple had resolved to stay as cheerful as possible to keep their family safe from the zombies.  The smell of fear seemed to be what attracted them, so they worked hard to be fearless.
  Their oldest son, Mbu was off to college, but their two adopted children, Yanluo, a 7-year-old Chinese boy and Yama, a 5-year-old Japanese girl needed to be protected from the zombie threat.  That is what brought them to Code Gray, a safe haven against zombies, established in Yuma, Arizona.  A constant message was broadcast in a wide circle in hopes of attracting any survivors.  People from as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada were showing up nearly every day.
  Father Ng had brought his family all the way from Marble Cliffs, Arizona when he heard the broadcast.  Enma had wanted to wait for Mbu, but Theophilus was insistent.  He believed that if Mbu was starting from Las Vegas, which is where he was when they had lost communication with him, it would be closer for him to get to the stronghold in Yuma than to return to Marble Cliffs.
  A knock came at the door.  It was Yama and Yanluo.  They came into the room.  "Hey dad, the guy outside said you've been assigned dune patrol."  If there's one thing Yuma has no shortage of, it's sand.  Citizens of Code Gray were assigned periodic tasks in order to help the community as a whole.  Dune patrol meant roving the perimeter of the stronghold, armed with a shark proof chain mail outfit, a shotgun and a whistle.
  "Okay.  What time does my shift start?"
  "Balls to four," replied Yanluo.  That meant from midnight to four o' clock.  Yanluo had already acquired the military-style lingo of the camp.
  "I hate it when you have to go out there at night," voiced Enma.
  "I know, sweetie.  The night shifts are provided night vision goggles, so don't worry."
  At 2345 that night, which is 11:45 pm, Father Ng reported for duty to the guard shack.  He conducted turnover with the previous watch stander and then assumed the post.
  At 0013 (12:13 am) something went horribly wrong.

The Greater Number 2: Hand of Karma part 1

  The early morning mist hung low over the grass as a flock of cranes flew overhead in search of water to drink and feed in.  Dragonflies flitted about, catching their meals, unaware of any human threat.  Though all the land was orange with anticipation, the sun had yet to emerge from behind the horizon.  The idyllic atmosphere of dawn in China was broken by the rupturous echoes of a rifle shot.  In the grass a newly re-dead undead body fell to the earth, minus a head.
  "Wow, I've heard you preach, and if you could make your points from behind the pulpit as sharply as you make them from behind this parapet, you'd fill every pew," remarked Father Fen-Chang to Father Mucker.
  "Yeah well, I've heard you preach, and your entire congregation becomes a sack of potatoes like that zombie out there when you're behind the pulpit."  On and on their bantering went as Father Fen-Chang and Father Mucker crouched low on the Great Wall of China and picked off the approaching zombies one by one with the rifles they had been issued.
  Father Fen-Chang was a missionary for the Marble Cliffs Chinese Baptist Church.  He was doing charity work in China, helping an impoverished family.  Their house was in shambles so he wanted to help them by repainting it.  He enlisted the help of a fellow preacher who ran a faux painting company called Moe Faux.  Moe Mucker was a Southern Baptist preacher who was also doing charity work in China.  The two hit it off and became fast friends.  Together they painted many houses all over China.
  About a month ago, there were reports of the dead returning to life.  There was a safe haven in Xi'an where the two of them were when the outbreak occurred.  They immediately volunteered their services in helping out in any way they could.  They were put on wall duty and given rifles so that they could protect the living from the dead from their post along the wall.
  They had a radio from which they listened to news from around the world.  The most disturbing news was of  a group in the States called Hand of Karma.  It was comprised of both the living and the dead, if that's possible.  The group was lead by its mysterious leader, Hadji, a monk who believed that he had been given the responsibility to wipe out all evil in the world.  His followers worshiped him and his undead horde did his dirty work.  In his own mind he was the hand of karma.

The Greater Number part 9

  "We're all gonna die, aren't we?" asked Mbu.  He backed his rolling chair away from the kitchen table.  "I don't know how or where the stereotype started about the black guy always dying first, but I already beat that one cuz the old lady died first."
  "You're rambling, man.  You in shock or sumpin'?  You said the same thing at the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee.  Did you die then?  And remember the gun fight at Old Tucson?  You was freaking out, hiding behind trees and shit.  Did that save you?  Did it kill us?"
  "But they always say the black guy dies first!"
  "They also say Chinese people really love fried chicken."  I looked down at my dinner plate full of chicken bones.  "But anyway, we've spent our whole lives trying to overcome stereotypes.  Why are you going to give in to them when it matters the most to be strong no matter what someone thinks about you?"
  Juanita walked into the kitchen.  "Daddy, the monk is outside."
  We all just sat looking around at each other.  Just then there was a scream from the living room.  We all ran in there.  There was a rotting Mexican looking lady attacking Helen.  The dead thing was busy gnawing on Helen's hand when we arrived.
  "Yvette!" cried the man we had thought was a monk.  He rushed over to grab the dead woman.  Once released, Helen ran off outside the alleged safety of the building to God knows what fate.  The dead woman, with a chin dripping blood, turned to face the monk.  A hint of recognition crossed her face.  Her head tilted like a dog listening to a dog whistle.  Then one last gear seemed to slip into place and the hunger kicked in.  Her arms reached out toward the monk.
  He was in tears, but had the poker from the fireplace in his hands.  Showing no fear, the dead woman attacked.  He brought the poker down on the top of her head.  The impact of the poker had broken her neck.  She fell to the carpet with her bloody mouth still snapping harmlessly.
  We were no longer under the impression that the man before us was a monk.  With a primal roar, he swung the poker wildly all over the place.  His third swing caught the young Asian lady under the chin, ripping her head completely off.  The neck stump left arcs of blood on the ceiling and the wall before the head landed without a hint of a bounce on the carpet.
  Desmond grabbed the two children, but the monk swung the poker, ripping a path through all three.  There was no thinking any of them was going to make it with huge gaping holes through their torsos.  Mbu and I ran out the door, just barely missing the other dead things outside.
  The monk came out, still brandishing the fireplace poker.  Boxers stood there in a solid and imposing stance, facing him.  The monk stood holding the poker like a baseball bat.  The two obviously had a past.  "You call yourself a monk!  You judge me, call me a pathological liar and a sociopath!  What about you, you hypocrite?  You stole my lover.  My dear, sweet Yvette.  And then you killed her.  You let her fall, you son of a bitch!  You stole her from me then you killed her.  But I'm stronger than you.  I killed you once, I'll kill you again."
  Boxers grabbed a stone and threw it at the monk.  It hit him in the shoulder, causing him to drop the poker.  Boxers stooped down to grab another stone.  The monk used the other hand to retrieve the poker from the ground.  As Boxers stretched his arm back for another throw, the monk swung the poker and severed Boxer's throwing hand.  He then swung the poker, catching Boxer's eye, ripping out his eyeball and exposing skull.  This didn't stop Boxers.
  All the other dead things had stopped what they were doing and were watching this confrontation between their leader and the robed man.
  Boxers used his good hand and grabbed the monk's shoulder.  The monk dropped the poker and took Boxer's head in both hands, pushing both thumbs deep into his exposed eye socket.  Liquified brains seeped out of the violated skull opening.  Boxers fell to the ground, motionless.
  With hands freshly bloodied from the kill, the monk let loose another bellow of primal rage.  Mbu and I expected the dead things to close in on us after witnessing the death of their leader, but they stood enrapt by the savage monk.  The three of us were the only survivors.  Mbu and I looked to the monk to see what he was going to do next.  He looked in our direction and pointed at us.  We thought perhaps he was going to address us, but instead the dead things started toward us.
  Mbu and I looked at each other and fled.  We ran down the road for almost a mile until we were too tired to run anymore.  Mbu stopped and I used that as an excuse to poop out too.  "What just happened back there?" Mbu asked.
  "The guy in the boxers was the leader of the pack of dead things, yeah?"
  "What are you in love with him?"
  "No, don't you see?  The monk ain't a monk.  He was a guest of the monk.  He killed the real monk, stole his clothes and pretended to be a monk. The real monk came back to life and became the leader of the dead pack.  Then the fake monk killed him, becoming the new leader of the dead pack."
  "Why are you explaining all this to me like I'm an idiot?" asked Mbu.
  "I'm really just speaking it out loud to myself.  Trying to make sense of all this."
  "So he's joined the greater number, though he remains among the living?"
  "Yeah, you could say that."
  "So what are we going to do?"
  "You remember what that old lady said?"
  "We're going to Mars?"
  "Chee kon yeh mom weh.  We've gotta go west.  The emergency broadcast said there was some sort of safe place there.  I mean, that monk and his pack of dead things are still after us.  We'll need to find some place to hide where there are other people who still have a pulse."
  "I can't believe he killed Desmond."
  Having that memory brought back to me winded me almost as much as the running had.  "I can't believe he's gone.  He's joined the greater number."
  "That means he's coming after us too."
  I looked Mbu straight in the eyes.  "There's nothing we could have done for him.  Now we have to still fight for our lives.  We're not out of this yet."  Without any real plan, the two of us headed west.

The Greater Number part 8

  The sound of the frying pan connecting solidly with skull and the subsequent thud of a body slumping to the ground caused Juanita to take off her blind fold.  Desmond looked at her, put on a weak smile and said in a wavering voice, "Uh, surprise?" followed by a nervous chuckle at the end.
  We then all looked up to see an even older old Caucasian lady than the dead old Asian lady standing over the unconscious form of the monk, still holding a frying pan.  She looked at some of us with a quizzical expression on her wrinkled face.  "What is you?"
  I managed a stupid sounding, "Huh?"
  She looked directly at me and scrunched up her eyes real squinty like, causing her nostrils to flare and her upper lip to bare her two front teeth.  "What is you?  You ain't black, but you ain't white!  What is you?"
  Out of her line of vision, Mbu moved his index finger in a circular motion around his ear in a classic 'She's cuckoo' gesture.  Without moving my head, I looked at him, them back to her.  Afraid to meet the same fate as our robed compadre, I cautiously replied, "Uh, ma'am, we're Chinese."
  "Shinies?  You mean you've finally come for me?  I've been waiting for you Shiny folk all my life!  I've got my bag packed and everything.  When you gonna take me to your ship?  Oh, but where's my manners?  After such a long trip, you've gotta be hungry!  Do Shinies like fried chicken?"  She started heading toward the kitchen, where the smell of fried chicken overpowered any other smell, hopefully even the smell of fear.
  Still not entirely sure what was going on, we all moved toward the kitchen where she had a whole basket full of legs, thighs, breasts and wings.
  "What are we gonna do about my daddy?" asked Juanita.
  "Oh, him."  The old lady grabbed a bucket of water and threw it on the monk, which caused him to sit straight up, sputtering.
  After the monk had taken some time to revive and refresh himself in the bathroom, he came to join us in the kitchen.  He eyed the tasty spread.  "You sure do know your way around a frying pan," he told the old lady.
  "Thanks," she beamed.  "I used to be a cook in the Navy."
  "All this cooking has the added benefit of making enough aroma to overpower any other smells we might be emitting.  I trust that enough of you know what I mean."  He nodded to me and my two friends and we nodded back.
  When the feast had come to an end, the old lady, the young Asian lady and the two children went into the living room while the monk, my friends and I stayed in the kitchen to talk.  It was the first real opportunity to talk we'd had since this had all begun.
  The monk had some things to tell us.  "The old lady's name is Helen Hiawatha.  She is a guest of mine at the facility.  She has dementia like Mrs. Kim, the old Asian lady.  Helen believes that aliens are coming to take her to the planet Mars.  She lives in this building because she has violent tendencies.  This building is built more securely for that very reason.  We should be safe here.  We had several guests here, but most of them were paranoid schizophrenics who were killed by the dead things."
  Mbu raised his hand as if this was some sort of class room for the demented.  "Um, so if Mrs. Kim had dementia too, why was she in the other facility?"
  The monk nodded his head.  "She is the non-violent type.  She was a repeater.  About once a week or so, she would hear something new that would catch her ear and she would start to repeat it over and over again. If it happened to be in English, she would just copy the sounds, not knowing what they meant." 
  "Her son  visited her every month.  He always brought his wife and son with him.  This time, he was in the park hanging out with his mother while his wife busied herself by reading a book to their son."
  "When the dead things came, they left the old lady alone, but they bit the man.  I managed to get Mrs. Kim, her daughter-in-law and her grandson inside, but the man was left outside to die.  The only thing is, he didn't stay dead.  When he came to the door later, the boy was with his grandmother in her room, but the young lady let her husband in.  He attacked her, but somehow she managed to get the upper hand and she put her stiletto heel through his ear, destroying his brain.  Ever since then, all she's done is try to read that book to her son.  Probably some form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."
  "I turned on a radio to see what was going on when I heard the emergency broadcast.  It didn't come in too clearly, but Mrs. Kim heard it and kept repeating what she thought they were saying.  Speaking of Mrs. Kim, she might have come back by now.  You see, the brain goes on living for a few minutes after death.  Often, during a beheading, the head sees the body from the new point of view and goes crazy before it dies.  The last part of the brain to survive is the primitive cortex close to the brain stem.  These dead things have probably been driven insane.  On top of that, they are driven by primal instinct with a keener sense of smell, sharper night vision and an insatiable urge to feed."
  "Those pestiferous pus bags act like a wolf pack," observed Mbu.
  "Why won't the dead just stay dead?  It's not fair.  I mean, I've got a mid term coming up and I haven't studied at all," complained Desmond.
  "You know, I think the dean will understand that we had some extenuating circumstances, Desi," said Mbu with a consoling pat on the shoulder.
  "Did you know that tombstones were first placed over graves to prevent the dead from coming out and harming the living?  Why doesn't that work any more?  It's supposed to work!" continued Desmond.
  "Maybe God's not happy with us," said Mbu.  Then he turned to the monk, "Or in your case, Buddha."
  "No, we can't blame God or Buddha for this.  So often, we humanize God, just so that we don't have to spiritualize ourselves," observed the monk.
  "Hmm.  How did you become so wise?" I asked the monk.
  He put his hands up in a surrendering gesture.  "Oh, believe me, I'm far from perfect."  Cloudiness seemed to cast a shadow over his eyes.  He reached into the folds of his robe and his hand came out with a small golden cross and a piece of paper.  "I had a lover."
  "Juanita's mother," mumbled Mbu.
  "Yes.  Her name was Yvette.  She was a Mexican Catholic and I am a Tibetan monk.  By all accounts, it shouldn't have worked out, but the heart sees past religious differences just as it sees past racial differences."
  "Well if you loved her so much, what happened?" asked Desmond.
  The monk unrolled the piece of paper and palmed the golden cross.  He traced his finger across the paper as he read aloud, "We were different she and I. Coming up here reminds me of that. I wore a necklace with beads while she wore one with a cross. We ate a lunch up on a hill top. I've returned to the spot which holds these memories.  What no one knows is that she fell that day. All I could grab onto was the pendant on her neck. When she fell the crucifix came off into my hands. And so I have it still along with all my guilt in my pocket. With me so I won't forget the day I watched her fall. That is the cross I bear."  By the end of the note, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

The Greater Number part 7

  As soon as the door opened, a dead hand grabbed the old lady's lower jaw.  The monk booked it toward the hill with Juanita in his arms.  Mbu picked up the little boy and ran for the hill as well.  Desmond wrestled with the attacker who still had a solid grip on the old lady.  I grabbed a hold of the young lady's hand and tried to lead her to the hill.
  Desmond had his arms hooked around the dead man's torso and managed to get him on the ground.  This action caused the old lady's jaw to completely separate from her face with a nauseating ripping sound.  The dead man immediately brought it to his mouth and sunk his teeth into her former chin.  For the second time that day, Desmond threw up.
  The old lady flailed around.  "Ag awg ack og eh," she continued saying until she had finally bled out.  Once Desmond had recovered from being sick, he joined the rest of us on our trek up the hill.  There was nothing more he could do for the old lady.
  By then, the entire pack of dead things had given up trying to enter the facility and were in pursuit of us.  We were all in a place of fear so there was no fooling them at this point.  We only had our speed on our side. Their shambling, shuffling limps seemed to be their only weakness.  The man in boxers led the pack in chasing us toward the hill.
  We all knew that reaching the building at the top of the hill was not where our struggles would end.  The Boxers Man had demonstrated that he knew how to use rocks to shatter windows.  We would have to reinforce the doors and barricade ourselves inside.
  Surprisingly, when we got inside the building, we noticed that the dead things were no longer chasing us.  A skirmish had broken out between Boxers Man and the man holding the jaw bone of the old lady.  None of the dead things had even tried to touch the freshly dead body of the old lady.
  Jawbone moved to tackle Boxers, but Boxers moved out of the way.  This caused Jawbone to lose his balance and fall flat on his face.  Boxers put a foot squarely on Jawbone's back.  he then reached down and snatched the jawbone from Jawbone's flailing hand.  He let his foot up and Jawbone struggled to his feet.  When he got up to face his opponent, Boxers swung the jawbone so that it sunk deep into his enemy's eye socket.  This immediately dropped Jawbone who never got back up.  In silence, Boxers went over to the old lady's body and began to eat.
  From our relative safety inside the building at the top of the hill, we watched this entire display in revulsion.  It seemed to have been some sort of power struggle in which the obvious winner was Boxers.  Once he had eaten his fill, the rest of the dead things swooped down upon the remains to begin their own feast.
  "So, before they're all done...." the monk shivered.  "Before they're done eating, I'd say we'd better start smelling like something other than fear."  Just then, a frying pan appeared out of nowhere, hit the monk in the head, causing him to drop to the floor out cold.

The Greater Number part 6

  The monk ran into the hallway.  "We must get out of here, but what can we do?  Juanita is agoraphobic.  She's been fine while we've been in here, but if she has to go outside, she'll become fearful and attract the dead things."
  "Well, we seem to be doing a pretty good job of attracting them without her help!" I said.
  "Those posthumous insomniacs must be attracted to something in here!" exclaimed Mbu.
  "Them bollocks is a biznitch!" cried Desmond.
  "Please, help me think of how we can escape with my daughter," pleaded the monk.
  That snapped us out of our fearful ramblings.  We regrouped to think of a plan.  Mbu hit upon an idea.  "What if we tell her that we have a surprise for her?  We can blindfold her and lead her to a safer location.  Wherever one of those might be."
  I interjected an idea.  "I did see a building at the top of that hill out there.  Having the higher ground should give us the advantage of being able to see them from afar so that they can't sneak up on us like that dude out there.  If we go with Mbu's idea, we can lead all of us to safety."
  Desmond voiced a concern.  "How many people are there here?"
  The monk answered, "You three, Juanita, me, the lady and her son and the older Asian lady."
  "Okay, so if you want to go get your daughter, us three will gather the family.  We'll meet up at the back door because the man out there seems to be attacking the front of the building" I said.  We all agreed and set the impromptu plan in motion.
  The three of us approached the little family who had relocated indoors.  I went to the young lady.  "Hi.  We're going to go for a field trip up the hill.  Would you like to tell your son and the old lady?"  She called her little boy over and started reading to him from the book.  I decided upon a different tactic.  "Excuse me, miss?  There is a library at the top of the hill, if you'd like to find more books to read to your son."  That got a response from her.  She told her son and the old lady about the library at the top of the hill.  The boy started doing jumping jacks for reasons only a little boy would understand.
  "Chee kon yeh mom weh," said the old lady.
  The eight of us met at the back door as planned.  The little girl was blindfolded and had a big smile on her face.  I said a silent prayer in my head and opened the door.

The Greater Number part 5

  In the bathroom, Desmond was eyeballing the tomato soup label.  "Hey man, it says this was produced in a facility that processes soy, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and wheat.  Why the hell does every facility these days seem to process tree nuts?  What the hell is a tree nut?"
  Mbu grabbed the can from him.  "More importantly, how do we open this can?"
  "Aren't wither of you the least bit curious as to why the little girl said the monk was lying about his name and why he was so quick to shut her up when she was about to tell us his real name?"
  "Meh, she probably just thinks his name is Daddy, just like every other kid out there," Mbu shrugged.
  Meanwhile, Desmond was banging away at one of the cans with a key from his pocket.
  Mbu grabbed Desmond's banging hand.  "Hey Desi, if you can successfully think of a dumber way of doing that, then I won't be forced to schmack you upside the head right now."
  "Uh, I could have been trying to use my teeth."
  "Hmph.  Yeah, alright.  Well, why don't you go back to the kitchen and find us a can opener?"
  "Oh yeah, that too."
  After Desmond left, Mbu and I looked at each other and sighed.  Something struck me as humorous.  "Rub a dub dub.  Three men..."  Mbu punched me in the shoulder.  Just then, Desmond showed up with a can opener.
  When the three of us were done getting the smell of skunk off us, we went back to the kitchen.  The monk was anxiously looking out the kitchen window.  We looked out the window and saw a man man dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts standing outside and staring right back at us.
  Desmond handed the can opener back to the monk and asked, "Who's that?"
  The monk's eyes never left the strange man but he said, "I don't know, but maybe you guys should have kept the skunk on you."
  "What?  No!  How long has he been standing out there?" I asked.
  "Ten, fifteen minutes, " guessed the monk.
  "All three of us were covered in tomato soup at that time.  Something else must have caught his eye."
  Suddenly the man picked up a stone and hurled it at the window.  Mbu had to duck to avoid getting hit by the stone.  Shattered glass covered the kitchen table.  I wouldn't have been surprised if any of us needed another bath after that, or at least a change of pants.
  "Look!" shouted Desmond.  When we did, we saw that the dead man had started approaching the facility. And he wasn't alone.

The Greater Number part 4

  A pair of hands had wrapped themselves around the monk's head and were covering his eyes.  We all stood up and backed away from the table.
  "Guess who?" asked a little voice, seemingly out of nowhere.
  "Hmm.  Is it Rumplestitskin?" said the monk calmly.
  "No, daddy, it's me, Juanita!"  The hands uncovered his eyes.  The monk turned around and wrapped a young Asian girl up in a huge bear hug.
  "What is this, 101 Damn Asians?!" I shouted.
  "I'm white," offered Desmond, still cowering behind Mbu.
  Nobody knew what to say for several seconds after that.  The momentary pause served to calm everyone down enough that we were able to sit at the table again.
  "Daddy, who are these men and why do they stink?"
  I was about to open my mouth, but the monk spoke first.  "These are our new friends.  You know, I don't even know their names."  He turned to me.
  I looked at him and after a moment of silence, I looked at the girl.  "Hello, Juanita.  My name is Hewlett."
  "Desmond."
  "Mbu."
  "Boo?  You're named after a ghost?"
  "What?  No.  M-B-U.  Mbu.  And no, you can't buy a vowel."
  "Mbu.  I like you.  You're funny!  And you smell funny too."
  Again, I was about to open my mouth, but the monk spoke first saying, "These young men got sprayed by a skunk.  You know, I've got several economy sized cans of tomato soup in the cupboard.  That should help with the smell."
  Desmond responded by getting up and going to the cupboard himself to grab the cans.  "Hey, man.  This says there's 33% less sodium.  Is it still gonna work?"
  I grabbed the can from Desmonds hand and looked at it.  "Dude, whatever.  Less salt, less fat.  All the movies and stuff say tomato juice helps get rid of skunk."
  "There is a bath tub in the bathroom down the hall to your left.  You may clean yourselves.  There are towels on a shelf in there too."
  I reached out to shake the monks hand.  "Hey man, I know we haven't exactly been gracious since you've met us.  I really do appreciate you saving our lives.  Thanks also for the tomato soup.  Hey, you know.  I don't even know your name.  I just keep calling you the monk."
  The monk had a solid grip.  He bowed and said, "My name is Hadji."
  Juanita stepped forward and said, "No it's not.  His name is..."
  "My dear, let them go clean themselves up," the monk interrupted.  The three of us went to the bathroom with the cans of tomato soup.