"Okay, so we're in the middle of the Himalayas in a bus with a few days worth of food, lots of gasoline, but a leaky gas tank and we're surrounded by zombies. Sound about right?" asked Liam.
Everyone on the bus was not paying attention to him. Some nodded, some were in shock, some were in a panic mode. The situation did look pretty dire.
Eddie the bus driver raised his hand and spoke at the same time. "I know how to patch up the gas tank and thankfully, most of you are good shooters since this is the wall duty bus." So it was decided that Eddie would go fix the gas tank while three others would cover him with their rifles.
To lighten the bus so they could jack it up, the gas canisters were off loaded and stacked by the tail end of the bus in the snow. All non-essential personnel in the operation then got back onto the bus to await its successful completion.
Inside the bus, a conversation started about Hand of Karma. "I, for one, agree with Hadji. No one on this planet cares about anything anymore. In the old days, if a kid misbehaved, you smacked him. Nowadays, you put him in time out. What's that do? Now you've got kids shooting each other at school and having sex and doing all kinds of drugs. Well, the day for retribution has come. Hand of Karma is going to weed out the wheat from the chaff."
Beau Ottoman couldn't believe his ears. "So your solution to people not loving each other is to kill them all? Is that any more loving than shooting up a classroom? Hand of Karma is killing many innocent people."
"Who's innocent? No one's truly innocent. I tell you it was human evil that brought these zombies."
Darion Morris remembered something. He turned to the Japanese scientist. "Kojira, you seem to know a lot about these zombies. How do you know so much?"
Kojira put his face downward and said nothing. Clark wanted answers and was getting frustrated by the scientist's silence. He pointed his rifle at Kojira's chest. "You have a choice. This can either be a deathbed confession or a friendly conversation."
Tears streamed down Kojira's face. "It wasn't my fault. There had been some well preserved remains of a woolly mammoth in Russia. Some of the remains were brought to Japan because we wanted to clone a mammoth using DNA from the remains and splicing them into the DNA of a modern elephant. I headed up the team that was working on this. The only problem was that people who were exposed to the remains started getting sick. I was somehow immune to whatever was going on. People started dying, but that wasn't the worst part. Then they started coming back to life. That's when I fled Japan and came here."
"You son of a bitch! I knew it was human evil that brought these zombies to us!" Clark took aim, but then there was a commotion that started outside the bus.
Several zombies had come, attracted by the smell of the small team of people outside working on the gas tank. Miriam, Father Mucker and Shirah were shooting at each as it came. Eddie was a trooper and single-mindedly kept at his task, trusting his team to keep him safe.
Unfortunately, a stray shot hit one of the gas canisters behind the bus. An enormous explosion rocked the area as the one canister started a chain reaction with all the others. If they had been on board the bus, it would have been destroyed. As it is, the rear of the bus was blown wide open. Eddie was instantly killed.
Inside the bus, the tour guide, Ling-Yu and the Smith sisters, Ravensong and Sythrain, who had been in the back of the bus were killed by the explosion. Julianne and Kojira had been in the middle of the bus and were injured by flying debris. Beau, Clark, Darion, Liam and Father Fen-Chang had only some minor scrapes and bruises. The heat inside the bus was unbearable so those who were well enough helped the injured to exit the bus.
Shirah had been hit in the head by a chunk of metal from one of the gas canisters. Her body lay in the snow while Father Mucker and Miriam were searching for a pulse. There was none. Every one of the shooters was now carrying their weapon while the others tended to the injured.
Julianne had bandaged her own wound and was helping Kojira who was in bad condition. There were still zombies around, but the fire had scared most of them off. The shooters took care of the few straggling zombies who were brave (or hungry) enough to ignore the fire. After all the zombies they could see had been dispatched, it was time to stop the fire.
"We should use snow balls," suggested Liam. It was agreed and all the non-shooters started making snow balls and throwing them at the fire, which had already begun to die down on its own, having depleted its source of fuel. Soon the fire was out.
Julianne was cradling Kojira in her lap. "He's lost so much blood. I don't think he'll make it even another hour even though I've bandaged his wound."
Father Fen-Chang considered the situation. He had overheard the conversation between Kojira and Clark earlier. He came up with a plan. "When he dies, it won't be long before he comes back to life and attacks us." He turned to Clark. "Clark, here's your big chance to be the Hand of Karma."
Clark froze. "What are you saying?"
"Come on. You blame Kojira for bringing the zombies. You want to rid the world of evil. You want to be the Hand of Karma. Well, this is your shot. Kojira here is going to die and become a zombie. What are you going to do about it?"
Clark's hands were shaking. "I was just talking. I'm not a killer."
"Well, the man you profess to admire is a killer and if you follow him, that makes you a killer too." Father Fen-Chang motioned for Julianne to leave Kojira in the snow. She stood up and stepped back several paces. Father Fen-Chang calmly aimed his rifle at Kojira's head and pulled the trigger. Following the explosion of brains and blood, Clark crumpled to the ground, sobbing hysterically. Father Fen-Chang laid an hand on his shoulder. "Now please, help us figure out what to do." Clark nodded his head and got up.
Miriam had gone back inside the bus to investigate the damage. She came back out. "All the food was in the back of the bus, which was destroyed. There's also a large hole that we'll have to cover up for both warmth and safety from the zombies."
"We can use tools from Eddie's tool box to detach some of the chairs from the bus to use in patching up the hole in the back," suggested Liam.
Miriam was still standing in the doorway of the bus and suddenly hands grabbed her from behind. Those who had died on the bus had reanimated and were ravenous for living human flesh. Immediately, Clark was in motion and he shot the newly undead Ravensong between the eyes. She lost her grip on Miriam who was then able to exit the bus.
She hugged him and burst out in tears at the same time. Something in him had fallen into place, turning him from coward into hero within the span of moments.
Ling-Yu and Sythrain awkwardly stumbled off the bus on a quest for flesh. Father Mucker fired a shot straight into the ear canal of the former tour guide. She went down like a chump. Sythrain's entire right cheek had been ripped off in the explosion. Beau shot her, but first got her in the throat. She reached out for Miriam and was able to take a bite of her throat, matching wound for wound. Unfortunately for Miriam, it was a wound that she could not sustain.
Clark tried to free Miriam from the zombie's grip, but succeeded in getting bitten as well. Sythrain took three of his fingers in one huge bite with her cheekless toothy mouth. Miriam dropped to the snow where she bled out in less than a full minute.
Beau lined up a second shot which hit its mark directly into Sythrain's left eye. Her head became a pink mist. Beau's shooting wasn't done yet. He reloaded his weapon and shot Miriam's lifeless form in the head, then turned to Clark. He paused a moment. Clark was in shock and bleeding badly.
Beau almost lost heart. "Clark, I know we've had our differences, but I want you to know I consider you a friend now. I hate to have to do this, but it's for the best. I'm sure you don't want to be walking around as one of those things." Clark nodded his head and looked Beau straight in the eyes. It was with eyes locked in mutual respect that Beau pulled the trigger and Clark was no more.
The fathers Fen-Chang and Mucker prayed over all the bodies of the deceased once they had been laid out in a row behind the bus. In the mean time, Liam and Beau were detaching bus seats and fastening them to the back wall of the bus in as secure a way as possible, considering what they had to work with.
Once everything was taken care of, everybody boarded the bus and closed the door. There was nothing more that could be done. There was no food, no gas, little ammunition and only a few more bottles of water left for all of them to share. That night, they went to sleep with heavy hearts and empty stomachs.
The next morning, there were more zombies outside, but they had left the bodies alone because they did not smell of fear. The survivors used an emergency exit at the top of the bus to go up and relieve themselves over the side of the bus.
Father Mucker had not slept much because he was pondering the thought of what to do about food. They wouldn't last long without any and they couldn't stay there forever.
Beau and Julianne, who were an engaged couple, were at the front of the bus. Julianne was weak from her injuries sustained during yesterday's explosion. Beau was looking after her.
Father Mucker voiced his hard to swallow opinion. "We're not going to make it without eating. I've been thinking about our options."
"What options? We're screwed!" shouted Liam.
Father Mucker put up his hands in a gesture that said, 'I understand your concerns'. "We can gain sustenance from the meat laying out there in the snow.
"I knew it, you old bastard, you're talking about cannibalism. Aren't you a priest? You're not supposed to be telling us to eat each other, man. Whatever happened to love your neighbor?"
Father Mucker nodded his head. "Does anyone else have any thoughts?"
Darion raised his hand. "Those things out there are trying to kill us and eat us. If we start eating each other, how are we any better than them?"
Beau spoke up while holding his ailing wife. "We're not killing each other to eat. Anyone we've killed was to keep them from coming back and killing us. Any of the bodies lying out there in the snow are not people anymore in the same way that those zombies aren't people anymore. When you go to the supermarket, you buy a steak or a tenderloin. You don't buy a cow."
"Well, I don't know if I can live with myself if I know I've eaten somebody," said Liam.
"I don't know if I can do it either," said Julianne.
Beau brushed her hair off her cheek. "Sweetie, you've got to. You're weak as it is."
Father Mucker said, "You know, Jesus could technically be called a zombie, but he had a different idea. He told his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood. If we thought of this as communion, perhaps it will be easier. Our friends out there have sacrificed themselves so that we can be saved. We honor their lives by making sure their deaths were not meaningless." He leaned over the bodies. "Farewell, my sunward friends. You have died in pain, but you shall not have died in vain." He raised a knife.
Just then, a large and furry humanoid figure emerged from the trees.
Everyone on the bus was not paying attention to him. Some nodded, some were in shock, some were in a panic mode. The situation did look pretty dire.
Eddie the bus driver raised his hand and spoke at the same time. "I know how to patch up the gas tank and thankfully, most of you are good shooters since this is the wall duty bus." So it was decided that Eddie would go fix the gas tank while three others would cover him with their rifles.
To lighten the bus so they could jack it up, the gas canisters were off loaded and stacked by the tail end of the bus in the snow. All non-essential personnel in the operation then got back onto the bus to await its successful completion.
Inside the bus, a conversation started about Hand of Karma. "I, for one, agree with Hadji. No one on this planet cares about anything anymore. In the old days, if a kid misbehaved, you smacked him. Nowadays, you put him in time out. What's that do? Now you've got kids shooting each other at school and having sex and doing all kinds of drugs. Well, the day for retribution has come. Hand of Karma is going to weed out the wheat from the chaff."
Beau Ottoman couldn't believe his ears. "So your solution to people not loving each other is to kill them all? Is that any more loving than shooting up a classroom? Hand of Karma is killing many innocent people."
"Who's innocent? No one's truly innocent. I tell you it was human evil that brought these zombies."
Darion Morris remembered something. He turned to the Japanese scientist. "Kojira, you seem to know a lot about these zombies. How do you know so much?"
Kojira put his face downward and said nothing. Clark wanted answers and was getting frustrated by the scientist's silence. He pointed his rifle at Kojira's chest. "You have a choice. This can either be a deathbed confession or a friendly conversation."
Tears streamed down Kojira's face. "It wasn't my fault. There had been some well preserved remains of a woolly mammoth in Russia. Some of the remains were brought to Japan because we wanted to clone a mammoth using DNA from the remains and splicing them into the DNA of a modern elephant. I headed up the team that was working on this. The only problem was that people who were exposed to the remains started getting sick. I was somehow immune to whatever was going on. People started dying, but that wasn't the worst part. Then they started coming back to life. That's when I fled Japan and came here."
"You son of a bitch! I knew it was human evil that brought these zombies to us!" Clark took aim, but then there was a commotion that started outside the bus.
Several zombies had come, attracted by the smell of the small team of people outside working on the gas tank. Miriam, Father Mucker and Shirah were shooting at each as it came. Eddie was a trooper and single-mindedly kept at his task, trusting his team to keep him safe.
Unfortunately, a stray shot hit one of the gas canisters behind the bus. An enormous explosion rocked the area as the one canister started a chain reaction with all the others. If they had been on board the bus, it would have been destroyed. As it is, the rear of the bus was blown wide open. Eddie was instantly killed.
Inside the bus, the tour guide, Ling-Yu and the Smith sisters, Ravensong and Sythrain, who had been in the back of the bus were killed by the explosion. Julianne and Kojira had been in the middle of the bus and were injured by flying debris. Beau, Clark, Darion, Liam and Father Fen-Chang had only some minor scrapes and bruises. The heat inside the bus was unbearable so those who were well enough helped the injured to exit the bus.
Shirah had been hit in the head by a chunk of metal from one of the gas canisters. Her body lay in the snow while Father Mucker and Miriam were searching for a pulse. There was none. Every one of the shooters was now carrying their weapon while the others tended to the injured.
Julianne had bandaged her own wound and was helping Kojira who was in bad condition. There were still zombies around, but the fire had scared most of them off. The shooters took care of the few straggling zombies who were brave (or hungry) enough to ignore the fire. After all the zombies they could see had been dispatched, it was time to stop the fire.
"We should use snow balls," suggested Liam. It was agreed and all the non-shooters started making snow balls and throwing them at the fire, which had already begun to die down on its own, having depleted its source of fuel. Soon the fire was out.
Julianne was cradling Kojira in her lap. "He's lost so much blood. I don't think he'll make it even another hour even though I've bandaged his wound."
Father Fen-Chang considered the situation. He had overheard the conversation between Kojira and Clark earlier. He came up with a plan. "When he dies, it won't be long before he comes back to life and attacks us." He turned to Clark. "Clark, here's your big chance to be the Hand of Karma."
Clark froze. "What are you saying?"
"Come on. You blame Kojira for bringing the zombies. You want to rid the world of evil. You want to be the Hand of Karma. Well, this is your shot. Kojira here is going to die and become a zombie. What are you going to do about it?"
Clark's hands were shaking. "I was just talking. I'm not a killer."
"Well, the man you profess to admire is a killer and if you follow him, that makes you a killer too." Father Fen-Chang motioned for Julianne to leave Kojira in the snow. She stood up and stepped back several paces. Father Fen-Chang calmly aimed his rifle at Kojira's head and pulled the trigger. Following the explosion of brains and blood, Clark crumpled to the ground, sobbing hysterically. Father Fen-Chang laid an hand on his shoulder. "Now please, help us figure out what to do." Clark nodded his head and got up.
Miriam had gone back inside the bus to investigate the damage. She came back out. "All the food was in the back of the bus, which was destroyed. There's also a large hole that we'll have to cover up for both warmth and safety from the zombies."
"We can use tools from Eddie's tool box to detach some of the chairs from the bus to use in patching up the hole in the back," suggested Liam.
Miriam was still standing in the doorway of the bus and suddenly hands grabbed her from behind. Those who had died on the bus had reanimated and were ravenous for living human flesh. Immediately, Clark was in motion and he shot the newly undead Ravensong between the eyes. She lost her grip on Miriam who was then able to exit the bus.
She hugged him and burst out in tears at the same time. Something in him had fallen into place, turning him from coward into hero within the span of moments.
Ling-Yu and Sythrain awkwardly stumbled off the bus on a quest for flesh. Father Mucker fired a shot straight into the ear canal of the former tour guide. She went down like a chump. Sythrain's entire right cheek had been ripped off in the explosion. Beau shot her, but first got her in the throat. She reached out for Miriam and was able to take a bite of her throat, matching wound for wound. Unfortunately for Miriam, it was a wound that she could not sustain.
Clark tried to free Miriam from the zombie's grip, but succeeded in getting bitten as well. Sythrain took three of his fingers in one huge bite with her cheekless toothy mouth. Miriam dropped to the snow where she bled out in less than a full minute.
Beau lined up a second shot which hit its mark directly into Sythrain's left eye. Her head became a pink mist. Beau's shooting wasn't done yet. He reloaded his weapon and shot Miriam's lifeless form in the head, then turned to Clark. He paused a moment. Clark was in shock and bleeding badly.
Beau almost lost heart. "Clark, I know we've had our differences, but I want you to know I consider you a friend now. I hate to have to do this, but it's for the best. I'm sure you don't want to be walking around as one of those things." Clark nodded his head and looked Beau straight in the eyes. It was with eyes locked in mutual respect that Beau pulled the trigger and Clark was no more.
The fathers Fen-Chang and Mucker prayed over all the bodies of the deceased once they had been laid out in a row behind the bus. In the mean time, Liam and Beau were detaching bus seats and fastening them to the back wall of the bus in as secure a way as possible, considering what they had to work with.
Once everything was taken care of, everybody boarded the bus and closed the door. There was nothing more that could be done. There was no food, no gas, little ammunition and only a few more bottles of water left for all of them to share. That night, they went to sleep with heavy hearts and empty stomachs.
The next morning, there were more zombies outside, but they had left the bodies alone because they did not smell of fear. The survivors used an emergency exit at the top of the bus to go up and relieve themselves over the side of the bus.
Father Mucker had not slept much because he was pondering the thought of what to do about food. They wouldn't last long without any and they couldn't stay there forever.
Beau and Julianne, who were an engaged couple, were at the front of the bus. Julianne was weak from her injuries sustained during yesterday's explosion. Beau was looking after her.
Father Mucker voiced his hard to swallow opinion. "We're not going to make it without eating. I've been thinking about our options."
"What options? We're screwed!" shouted Liam.
Father Mucker put up his hands in a gesture that said, 'I understand your concerns'. "We can gain sustenance from the meat laying out there in the snow.
"I knew it, you old bastard, you're talking about cannibalism. Aren't you a priest? You're not supposed to be telling us to eat each other, man. Whatever happened to love your neighbor?"
Father Mucker nodded his head. "Does anyone else have any thoughts?"
Darion raised his hand. "Those things out there are trying to kill us and eat us. If we start eating each other, how are we any better than them?"
Beau spoke up while holding his ailing wife. "We're not killing each other to eat. Anyone we've killed was to keep them from coming back and killing us. Any of the bodies lying out there in the snow are not people anymore in the same way that those zombies aren't people anymore. When you go to the supermarket, you buy a steak or a tenderloin. You don't buy a cow."
"Well, I don't know if I can live with myself if I know I've eaten somebody," said Liam.
"I don't know if I can do it either," said Julianne.
Beau brushed her hair off her cheek. "Sweetie, you've got to. You're weak as it is."
Father Mucker said, "You know, Jesus could technically be called a zombie, but he had a different idea. He told his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood. If we thought of this as communion, perhaps it will be easier. Our friends out there have sacrificed themselves so that we can be saved. We honor their lives by making sure their deaths were not meaningless." He leaned over the bodies. "Farewell, my sunward friends. You have died in pain, but you shall not have died in vain." He raised a knife.
Just then, a large and furry humanoid figure emerged from the trees.
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