The Greater Number 3: The Simian Connection part 2

  The large furry humanoid had appeared out of nowhere and was now battling the zombies.  He grabbed the heads of two and smashed them together.  With a single massive paw, he could snap a neck and, boy did he.
Within minutes, he had thinned out the herd.  He took the second-to-last one by the feet, swung him like a baseball bat and whacked the last one in the head like a tee ball extraordinaire.  Home run, mofo!
  The small crowd watching from the Centimator actually did go wild.  Even Cyril had roused from her fetal position to watch what had happened.  Now that the battle seemed to be over, she didn't cheer, but she also didn't go back into a fetal position.  Edger put an arm around her shoulder.
  "Yeah, you know.  I think that's a Sasquatch, a Bigfoot.  What else do they call those things?" asked Hewlett, like that was the most important matter at the moment.
  "How about a thesaurus?" suggested Mbu.
  "No, I don't think I've ever heard it called that," said Hewlett, which earned him a punch on the shoulder.
  The Bigfoot turned toward the Centimator.  "Uh, dad.  Does this thing go in reverse?" asked Yanluo.
  "His name is Yorren," said Cyril.
  "Sweety, don't start with that," Edger said.
  "Mom would have believed me," retorted Cyril.
  Edger turned to the rest of the people in the vehicle.  "Cyril says she can communicate with animals."
  "I don't say I can.  I can.  I've been able to all my life.  So could my mother," Cyril explained.
  "You said his name is Yorren?" asked Father Ng.
  "Yes, he says his home is not too far from here.  His family is there."
  "I thought we were gonna go to that camp," said Mbu.
  "Could you ask him about the camp?" said Father Ng.
  Cyril had opened her door and was standing face to face with the Sasquatch.  After a moment, she said, "He said the camp has been overrun."
  Father Ng reacted as if slapped.  "Lord have mercy."
  "All those people," said Enma.  The whole group was silent for several moments.
  Cyril broke the silence by saying, "Yorren says he smells more of those things in the area."
  "We've got to get moving," said Father Ng.
  "Yorren has a special request," said Cyril.
  "Bigfoot's making demands now?" asked Hewlett.
  "He'd just like to ride in the turret thingy.  What would that be called, shotgun?" asked Cyril.
  "Uh yeah, sure," responded Father Ng.
  Moments later, Yorren climbed up onto the top of the vehicle.  Cyril got back into the vehicle and Father Ng started it up.  Cyril relayed Yorren's directions and they were off.  The whole way to the forest, Yorren was waving his arm in the air like a cowboy in a rodeo.

The Greater Number: Index Patient

  Kojira DeSoto was the son of Jiro DeSoto, the founder of the Japanese Institute of Science and Microbiology, located in Tsukuba, Japan.  One day, Jiro died of heart complications.  Kojira was called into his father's office by Jiro's secretary, Hiranaka Ansadora.  Being a licensed helicopter pilot, Kojira flew in and landed on the helipad of the JISM building.
  "Choobinuptu, Hiranaka?" asked Kojira when he got to his father's office.
  "What did you say?" asked Hiranaka.
  "Did I stutter?  I said, 'What have you been up to, Hiranaka?'  I haven't seen you since the Christmas party. Although, I admit, I don't remember much about that night."
  "I've been really busy with the company since your father died, but I hope to be able to go see a Kabuki show this weekend.  That's why I called you here," explained Hiranaka.
  "How about Noh?"
  "Huh?" asked Hiranaka.
  "What about Noh?" repeated Kojira.
  "I don't know what you're talking about."
  "What part of Noh do you not understand?"
  "Anyway, Kojira.  I called you here today because your father has left the company to you to lead."
  "Holy shit, you for reals?"
  "Uh, yes.  But don't worry, you will have help."
  "Wait, why can't you do it?"
  "Your father's will specifically names you as the next CEO of JISM."
  "So what's this help you mentioned?"
  "Your father's trusted second man, Shavonte.  He's on his way up here right now."  Just then the double door opened and a man walked in.  "Ah, here he is now.  I'll leave the two of you now."
  "I'm Shavonte Nakamoto."
  "Shavonte?  Somehow I thought you'd be..."
  "Taller?"
  "Yeah, that too."
  Shavonte had worked for Jiro since the beginning.  He had watched him erect JISM from the ground up.  He secretly resented the fact that Kojira, who had no experience whatsoever, had been made CEO.  Behind his back, he called Kojira 'Tatami Boy'.  The biggest test for how JISM would stand after Jiro's untimely fate came in the form of an email from Russia.
  JISM was on the forefront of cloning technology.  Recently, the well-preserved remains of a woolly mammoth had been discovered in Russia.  The scientists in Russia wanted to bring some of the remains to Japan for possible cloning.  It was Shavonte's job to make sure Kojira didn't screw this up.  First things first, he had to call him from wherever the hell he was and get him into the office.
  After several attempts, Shavonte finally got through.  "There you are.  Haven't you heard my phone calls?"
  "No.  My phone's on vibrate mode."
  "Where is it?"
  "In my pocket."
  "Numb nuts, I've been trying to get a hold of you for an hour now!"
  "I've been flying around Tsukuba in my new helicopter.  I was just thinking about you too.  Do you think I'm too skinny to be a sumo wrestler?"
  "What?  That's not important right now."
  "Well it's important to me.  I've always wanted to be a sumo wrestler."
  Shavonte took a deep breath.  "Do you know what I just found out that I didn't know?"
  "You're gay?"
  "No!"
  "Oh, you already knew that?"
  Shavonte counted to ten in his head before resuming communication with Tatami Boy.  "Russia has the mummified remains of a woolly mammoth and they want to bring them here so that we can clone it."
  "You shitting me?  My dad wouldn't even let me have a dog growing up.  What the hell do you feed a woolly mammoth?  Do they like peanuts?  You're a scientist.  Where we gonna keep him?"
  Shavonte cracked his knuckles one finger at a time, letting his heart rate lower before addressing Tatami Boy.  "The cargo is already on its way.  Hiranaka is at the receiving bay awaiting their arrival.  The remains have been kept frozen so we'll have to thaw some of it so that we can try to extract DNA."
  "Hey, does my dad's computer get internet?"
  "He was the CEO of JISM.  Yes, his computer gets internet."
  "Cool, I'm gonna start pricing out peanuts in bulk."
  "Whatever.  I'll be downstairs with Hiranaka.  We'll call you if we need anything."
  Shavonte and Hiranaka signed all the paperwork for the mammoth remains, then it was off to the thawing room.  Hiranaka was so excited he wanted to stay in the room with the remains.
  "Hey man, a watched pot never boils," warned Shavonte.
  "Oh I know, but we're really doing it aren't we?"
  "Yes, we are.  I'm excited too.  Tatami Boy is upstairs buying peanuts for our little nest egg here."  The two of them shared a laugh over that one, then Shavonte left Hiranaka in the thawing room to go eat.
  When Shavonte got back from lunch, he went back into the thawing room.  Hiranaka was face down on the floor.  "Holy Krizmak!  Hiranaka, what happened?"  He turned Hiranaka's body over and lightly smacked him on each cheek in an attempt to rouse him.  The downed scientist wasn't breathing and his skin was cool to the touch.  Suddenly his eyes flew open.
  Shavonte was confused at the seemingly mixed signals he was getting from his fallen comrade.  Some signs of death, some signs of life.  In his head, he tried to make a tally of each.  He figured the the ratio of living attributes to dead attributes should tip the scales one way or the other.
  It seemed like a good idea until Hiranaka clamped his jaw solidly on Shavonte's wrist.  That still didn't answer the living or dead question for Shavonte, but it did hurt like hell.  He pulled his hand away from his friend's teeth and ran out of the room.
  In the meantime, Hiranaka ran around the building biting all the scientists.  Shavonte was cowering in the security room watching this horror unfold.  Every person that Hiranaka bit eventually became another not-quite-dead biter.  Luckily, Shavonte's wound wasn't very bad, but he knew that he'd become one of those things he was watching on the closed circuit television.
  He decided to call Kojira.  "Kojira, this is Shavonte.  We have a problem."
  "Me too, man.  My online search hasn't amounted to a hill of beans."
  Shavonte finally had no more patience.  "Will you shut up about your peanuts for one second!  Hiranaka's dead or something.  Anyway, he's biting people and making them almost dead too."
  "Or almost alive, depending on which way you wanna look at it."
  "So all these people are sick with this undeadness.  It's transmitted through bites and I've been bitten.  Hiranaka is the index patient and he bit me.  I figured you could medivac me to a nearby hospital in your helicopter before I turn into one of those things."
  "What's an index patient?" Kojira asked.
  "It's the first person to present with a disease."
  "Where are you now?"
  "I'm in the security room."
  "I'm on my way."
  "Be careful.  There are a lot of those things all over the building."
  "I'll be there as soon as I can be."
  "And, Kojira."
  "Yes?"
  "Thank you."  Shavonte pressed the button to disconnect.  Now it was just a matter of waiting for Kojira to make it from his father's office on the 27th floor to the security room on the first floor.  As time went by, he became more and more despondent.
  After twenty minutes, he knew he wouldn't make it to the hospital.  He wanted to make sure he wouldn't come back after he died.  He took a power cord and made a noose out of it.  He slipped it over his head and stood on a rolling chair.  It was while he was standing there that Kojira finally arrived.
  "Dude, what are you doing?  We have to go!"
  "I can't.  I'll be dead in a matter of minutes and I don't want to come back."
  "I'm sorry I took so long.  I had to kill several of those things on my way here.  I noticed you have to destroy the brain in order to silence them permanently."
  "Yeah, I know.  I saw you on the security monitors.  That's why I'm standing here with a noose around my neck.  Once I die, my body will become slack, separating my head from my spinal cord and preventing my return as one of the undead."
  "If I had just gotten here sooner, I would have been able to save you."
  "You could have just abandoned me and flown away to safety, but you risked your life to try to save mine."
  "But I've never finished anything in my life.  And now, when it matters the most, I've failed again."
  Shavonte was touched.  "I appreciate that I matter to you that much.  I know what you mean about never being able to finish anything.  When I was a kid, my parents put me in karate classes.  I got all the way to red belt, but I never went for the final test to make black belt.  That has defined my life.  I've spent my entire life as a red belt.  Which is why I resented you being made CEO of this company I've worked so hard to climb the ranks in.  I felt cheated out of my prize."
  "God, I'm so sorry.  I never even wanted to follow in my father's footsteps.  I didn't do very well in school.  The only way I was able to get through some of my classes in high school was by doing makeup work and extra credit.  I realize that I have taken on this whole attitude in life.  Makeup work is basically easy extra work that you do because you didn't do well at the prescribed objective.  For instance, to make up for having done poorly on a math test I would make up my grade by doing extra math problems as homework.  The problem lies in the fact that doing work at home with the book in no way gives you any indication of how well you know the material.  You're just doing it robotically like the book tells you to.  The real test would be to see how well you do with no one helping you and you have to know on your own how to solve a problem.
I would have no idea how to run this company."
  "I'm sure that if all this hadn't happened, you would have done a great job running this company.  I've seen what you can do when you set your mind to it.  You fought your way through a building full of the undead so that you could save my life.  You're also the one who successfully got your helicopter pilot license.  I wouldn't have been able to fly myself to a hospital."  Shavonte's body started to go into convulsions.  After a while, it went still and the wheeled chair rolled to the side.  Once his legs were suspended in the air, there was an audible crack as his neck broke.
  Kojira made his way past the undead and got to the roof of his father's building.  He boarded the helicopter and flew off, leaving his old life behind.

The Greater Number 3: The Simian Connection part 1

  "Alright, so there's a big old white furry ugly thang standing there staring at us.  Does that about sum up our current situation?" asked Liam Moor.
  No one else had anything to say.  They had been on the verge of cannibalism, but this new development had all of their attention.  Suddenly, Julianne said, "His name is Kohmos.  He is a Guardian of Shangri La.  He has taken care of the zombies in the area and he will now take us to the palace."
  "Lady, you're starting to freak me out, but since you're at it, why don't you ask if Cosmo here has any food at this palace of his so we don't have to eat Tom, Dick and Harry," remarked Liam.
  "There is food at the palace.  He is able to talk through me because I am pregnant and he is able to connect spiritually and psychically with my unborn child."
  Beau hadn't known yet about his wife's pregnancy.  He jumped in the air and let out a whoop of joy.  Of course, this was the weirdest thing any of them had ever seen.
  Darion asked, "Is this that Shangri La of legend, shaped like a lotus and hidden in the Himalayas?"
  "Naw, it's Shangri La, New Jersey, dumbass.  We're in the Himmies, yuh!  What I want to know is, how's he gonna get us to this magical city of blah blah blah," uttered Liam.
  In response, Kohmos picked up the back of the bus with his bare hands.
  "Wait, so this yeti dude is gonna drag us in this bus all the way there?" asked Liam.
  Again, in response to Liam's question, five other yeti appeared from the woods.  They took the bus, three to a side and carried it like pall bearers.  The six survivors loaded onto the bus and they were on their way.
  "All my life, I've always been the pall bearer, never the corpse.  Now I'm riding in style," said Liam.
  When the group got to the gates of the fabled city, the yeti put the bus down and opened the gate.  An ornately carved wood sign above the gate said, 'Love is all good people need'.  The survivors piled out and entered the walls of the city.  The first thing they noticed was that the people had bluish gray skin.
  The natives spoke through telepathy.  The six survivors were split up so that they could each have their individual needs.
  Julianne had been injured in the bus explosion.  She was taken to a room where there were three of the Shangri as she came to know them.  They had her lie down on a table.  The three Shangri began to sing.  They didn't sing through their mouths.  They had holes in the backs of their necks through which an airy whistling sound emitted.  As the three singers harmonized, Julianne could feel her wounds mending and soothing.  Before long, she was feeling stronger and was able to rise to a sitting position.
  In a different room, Darion was laid out on a table.  He had been shot by a guard at Xi'an.  He had lost a lot of blood and was not in good health.  The Shangri made a critical decision to transplant his heart with that of a yeti.  News of this caused quite a buzz among the Shangri.  They called the yeti, 'Guardians'.  Darion didn't know why the Shangri were so excited.  After the operation was completed, the three singers came into the room and before long, he was sitting up on the table.
  Suddenly, the double doors that led into the room opened and a table was wheeled in.  On the table was a Shangri who was dressed in elegant robes.  Through the language of the mind, Darion knew this was Shwama Po, the 31st king of Shangri La.
  Shwama Po reached out a hand and took Darion's hand in his.  "You are the one of whom the prophecy of Shambhala speaks.  You shall be known as Guardian Heart.  You are now the 32nd king of Shangri La and you shall save the world."  With that, Shwama Po withdrew his hand, exhaled, and never drew another breath.  Darion was left with a myriad of questions.

The Greater Number: Still As Death

  Hadji the Great was speaking to his followers.  "My brother's and sisters, will we allow the carelessness and negligence to continue destroying our environment?"
  The crowd answered, "No!"
  "Will we allow the love of money to continue ripping this world apart?"
  "No!"
  This had been going on periodically on the cross-country reign of terror that Hand of Karma had waged against the evils of humanity.  Roger Titian and his wife, Paula were shouting out their agreement with Hadji's tirades, but Paula was just a little less passionate.  The two of them had started following Hand of Karma immediately after their house had gone up in flames.  They didn't know who Hadji was, but they had nowhere else to go.  They had not yet participated in one of Hadji's raids.  Roger noticed Paula's expression of unhappiness.
  "Sweetie pie, is there something wrong?" he asked.
  "We've been following this guy since this morning, but he hasn't mentioned helping anybody or saving people's lives.  We've left our home town and I don't even know where we're going.  I thought the zombies were the problem these days, but we've got zombies all over the place within our group."
  "Yeah, I've noticed that too.  Maybe the zombies carry out his wishes," suggested Roger.
  "Zombies do one thing and that is kill and eat people.  If those are his wishes, I don't want to follow him."
  "But he does have a lot of good points."
  Paula shuddered.  "Yes, that's what makes it so easy for these people to follow him.  He does have many good things to say, but the solution isn't to kill the people we don't agree with."
  "We're not killing anybody, the zombies are."
  "But we're on the side of the zombies."
  Roger was bipolar and struggled with grandiosity.  "Don't think of it that way.  Think about the fact that we're on the side of righteousness.  When you're right, nothing else matters."
  Paula knew the signs when Roger was in a manic episode.  At those times, he had no access to the pre-frontal lobe of his brain which controls cognitive reasoning.  This meant that he was not able to process the consequences of his actions or words.  He had lost view of the big picture, so to say.  She knew that there was no reasoning with him.  His medication and perished when their house burned down earlier that day.
  The group was advancing toward Yuma, Arizona where there was a reported safe haven.  Paula had no idea what to expect whenever they would arrive at Code Gray.
  Up ahead, it looked like there was a military base of some sort.  Hadji was giving orders.  As per orders, various groups were storming the gates of the base and others were looking for other ways in.  As soon as the gates had been broken down, Hadji sent in the zombies.
  Paula stood back and watched in horror as she heard screams of agony emanating from within the walls.  She wanted to be able to stop the madness and help those who were in danger from being killed.  As she grew more and more hopeless, some of the zombies were beginning to pay attention to her.
  One of them grabbed her by the hair and sank his teeth deep into her jugular.  Roger had been holding a gate open for the zombies to enter the military base, but he started to come to help his wife when he saw what was happening.  He went over to the zombie, grabbed him and growled primally in his face.  Seeing that his prize kill had a stronger competitor contending for it, the zombie let go of Paula and stumbled toward the gates in search of fresh meat he wouldn't have to fight for.
  Roger collapsed to the ground, holding his wife in his lap.  "Sweetie pie, you can't leave me now.  We're supposed to grow old together.  Til death do us part."
  Paula's eyelids fluttered weakly as she tried to look her husband in the eyes one last time.  They locked eyes and then she let out one last breath.  After that she became still as death.  Roger just held her there, rocking back and forth in the sand and gently weeping.
  Moments later, focus came back into Paula's eyes.  She sat up and looked around.  Roger stood up as well.  By then his tears had been dried by the Arizona sun.  Together they approached Code Gray.  Now, as a couple they would follow Hadji everywhere he went.  Hand of Karma had two new devoted fighters in the battle against the evils of humanity.

The Greater Number: Days of Mayhem

  "Alright, so this trip we're making to Oregon to escape from zombies can either be called Oregon Entrails or the Organ Trail, eh?  What do you think?" I asked.
  "Or we can call it the shut the hell up or I'll kick you where the sun doesn't shine trail, mouth breather," suggested Mbu with a smirk.
  "Do not speak so lightly of hell, son," pleaded Father Ng.
  "Father dearest, my freedom of speech doesn't infringe upon your freedom of religion," retorted Mbu.
  "Please, Father, allow me to submit my rebuttal to your son's eloquent jibe against my lively and jocular attempts at lifting the mood in the car.  Mbu, my old buddy old pal, I only breathe through my mouth around you because you've go halitosis, so why don't you take your grumpy attitude and stick it right up your..."
  "Hey, there's some people out there!" shouted Yanluo.
  We all looked out the bullet proof windows and saw that, indeed, there was a scuffle going on between a small group of people and some zombies.
  Thinking quickly, Enma took out a bottle of hand sanitizer from her purse, unscrewed the top and stuffed a sheet of tissue paper halfway inside so that enough of it stuck out for her to light with a match.  She shouted out the window, "Any humans out there, scatter now!  Fire in the hole!"
  Two of the people backed up, leaving four still grouped up.  Enma lit the tissue and threw the bottle of hand sanitizer into the middle of the group.  The improvised Molotov cocktail didn't exactly explode, but it did cause a lot of fire.  All four of the figures lit up like a toasted marshmallow.
  The thing about zombies, which makes it kind of creepy to watch when they're on fire, is that since they don't feel pain, they don't flail and thrash about like a person in pain would.  They just stand there until either their brains boil or their muscles are no longer attached to their bones.  Three of them continued what they were doing.  The only problem was that the fourth started to thrash around wildly.  All four eventually fell to the ground and remained still.
  The two people had watched the entire scene unfold.  One of them, a teen aged girl fell to her knees in body wracking sobs.  The other, a grown man, suddenly ran at the vehicle and started beating on the passenger side, shouting, "You son of a bitch!  That was my wife!  That was my..."  His voice trailed off, as did the fists on metal and he too crumpled to the ground in tears.
  Enma was horrified.  She was going to exit the vehicle, but Father Ng put a hand on her shoulder.  "Give him a moment.  I'll go speak with him.  Enma wept while her husband went to comfort the mourning widower.  He whispered a prayer over him.
  The man got up weakly and put his hands up in protest.  "Please, mister, I'm an atheist."
  Father Ng backed up a bit, giving the man a respectful distance to honor his beliefs.  The man walked over to where the teen aged girl was crying and reached a hand out to her.  She took his hand and got to her feet.  Father Ng asked them if they would like to ride in the vehicle with them.  Reluctantly, they accepted.
  For a while, the Centimator drove on in silence.  The sobbing came in waves ebbing and flowing with cycling emotions.  Enma finally mustered the strength to attempt speech.  "I take full responsibility for what happened and I apologize from the bottom of my heart."  Having said all that can be said in such a situation, she gave the two newcomers time to process.  She expected no response and got none.
  After a long while, the man felt compelled to at least express appreciation for the ride.  "My name is Edger Holts and this is my daughter, Cyril.  I want to thank you for picking us up."  After that, it looked like he wanted to say more, but he restrained himself.
  "Oh Lord, there are so many of them!" Father Ng exclaimed as a wall of zombies came into view.  Just then he hit the brakes as a huge lumbering furry humanoid form stepped out of the bushes and into the road.

The Greater Number: Alive Again

  "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.

The Greater Number: Showdown At Xi' an

  When the zombie outbreak started in China, many scientists were brought in from all over the world to study the cause.  A Japanese scientist, named Kojira DeSoto just kinda showed up unannounced.  He seemed to know an awful lot about the zombies.  He didn't want to talk about it though, so he volunteered for wall duty a lot.  The bus drove him the 200 miles from the walls of Xi' an to the Great Wall of China so that he could patrol the wall with a rifle and defend the city from zombies.
  This left the scientific team, led by Darion Morris, his assistant, Liam Moor and two other scientists named Jasmine Basmati and Thadduceus Horowitz to figure out what they could about the zombies.  All they could squeeze out of Kojira was that the zombies were attracted to the smell of fear.  That was how they knew the living from the dead.
  Jasmine was a beautiful young female scientist from India who specialized in animal behavior.  Thadduceus was a middle-aged Greek scientist who studied mental disorders.  Darion was an American scientist from Arizona who was familiar with many infectious diseases.  Liam was an Irish kid straight out of college who was really just an apprentice under Darion's tutelage.
  As usual, they were all gathered around a table for their daily brainstorm session.  Jasmine had come up with a brilliant idea of extracting the smell of fear from volunteers and using it to turn the terra cotta army into a distraction tactic against any potential zombie infiltration.  The only problem is, how the hell do you extract the smell of fear from somebody?
  Dirty chop sticks and empty plates sat around.  "How can these people eat Chinese food every day?" complained Liam, sitting with his feet up on the table.
  "To them, it's not Chinese food, it's just food.  Now will you stop thinking about the food and try to help us keep from becoming food for the recently reanimated deceased?" suggested Darion.
  "Look man, you wanna extract the smell of fear from people, why don't you just make them afraid and hot at the same time?  Collect their sweat and call it a day."
  Darion, Jasmine and Thadduceus exchanged glances with each other across the table.  None of them could come up with a suitable hole in his theory.  "That's actually pretty good," complemented Thadduceus.
  "Shit.  Y'all trying to be all scientific and shit.  I'll even be your guinea pig.  Bring it on."
  With that, the team devised a system that was crude, but workable.  They had five captured zombies chained to a wall in a room.  They turned off the air conditioning in the room and put Liam in with them.  He had been given a lot of water to drink.  As soon as he was near them, they were all reaching for him and trying to grab him.  The scientists watched with some measure of pleasure as he broke out into a sweat as he frantically avoided the reaching hands.  After fewer than ten minutes, he was let out of the room.
  Sweat was skimmed off his skin using special tools and it was collected into a vial.  His theory still needed to be tested so they asked him what he would do.
  "Do I have to do everything around here?  You just take two tennis balls.  Rub some of my sweat on one of them, then roll both of them into the room with the damn zombies.  Make sure you can tell the two apart visually.  If the zombies go after the one we know to have my sweat on it, we'll know my idea works."
  It was simple and decidedly unscientific, but it would work.  They did as he said and the zombies tore up the tennis ball with Liam's sweat on it while completely ignoring the other one.  They had a working theory on their hands and there was no time to waste in implementing it.
  Not to be outdone by a punk kid from America, Thadduceus volunteered to be next.  They put him into the room and, as expected, the zombies were reaching for him.  Unexpectedly, one of them was able to break free.  It grabbed Thadduceus and sank its disease infected teeth into his fleshy throat.  The scientists outside the room knew there was nothing they could do for him.  They could only watch in horror as he thrashed about.  His eyes were frantically pleading for help, though his vocal cords could no longer function.
  Seeing that the other scientists had abandoned him, Thadduceus flew into a rage.  Still spewing blood everywhere, he grabbed the key from his pocket and unlocked the other four zombies.  He used a length of chain to shatter the observation window.  This was his final act before he was overpowered and devoured.
  Darion and Liam ran out of the building.  Jasmine was lost in the shuffle of people trying to figure out what to do with five escaped zombies.  They were scientists, not soldiers.
  There were regular guards posted on the walls of Xi' an.  Liam was roommates with the current guard on watch over the gate to the city.  He wanted nothing but to get out because he thought the city was doomed. He and Darion approached the guard.  "What's up, roomie?"
  The guard pointed his rifle at them.  "What are you doing here, Liam.  You know you're not allowed to leave the city."
  Somehow, a fire had started at the laboratory, which set off the fire alarm.  The guard looked at the building to see what was happening.  Liam used this temporary distraction to make a break for it.  Darion followed him because he knew the danger of the escaped zombies.  The guard turned around and shot his rifle.  The shot went all the way through Darion's thigh.  He managed to duck behind a rock.  He and Liam were able to use the large rock as a blockage to disguise their escape.
  Back at the laboratory, the zombies had bitten several people on their way out of the building.  Jasmine was one of them.  Many of the people of the city had shown up to investigate the cause of the alarm.  The zombies were able to get them as well.
  By this time, Thadduceus had come back to life.  He was patient zero in a new outbreak.  This was the beginning of the end for a city that had been the safe haven for many.  As the numbers shrank on the one side, they grew on the other.  Many fought valiantly, but eventually they all joined the greater number.