Monster Planet(2)

The hand twitched. Closed into a loose fist. The dead soldier convulsed upward, her shoulders rolling as she sat up to look at Sarah with blank eyes. Her mouth opened wide, blood spilling out from between her teeth. Most of her rib cage on the left side had been blown away'she definitely wasn't breathing.

It could happen that quickly. Sarah had witnessed undeath before. She took her pistol out of her pocket and lined up a shot with the dead woman's forehead. Even as the new ghoul lunged at her she fired. A little splutter of blood burst from the woman's right temple. It wasn't a solid kill. She could feel the ghoul looming over her, getting closer. They were slow, but deadly'a single scratch or bite would pump toxins into Sarah's bloodstream. Her fingers shook as she lifted her weapon and tried to aim.

Ayaan rushed Mariam and grabbed her by one shoulder and her remaining hip. 'Cover,' she shouted at Sarah. Sarah protected her face and head from clawing fingernails as Ayaan rushed Mariam out of the open cargo door. Her undead body pinwheeled down to smack the sand in the midst of the army below.

Ayaan and Mariam had been together since they were schoolgirls, since before they had gotten their first periods. Since before they learned how to shoot. Nobody said a word. It was just that kind of a world, and it had been for twelve hard years.

Osman kept climbing until they were well out of range of the guns below. The dead kept reaching for the helicopter but the living stopped firing and they were safe again. 'Firearms,' Ayaan said, wagging her jaw around to pop her ears. 'The dead don't shoot.'

Sarah steeled herself. She needed to be part of this conversation. 'There were living people down there, too. Maybe a third as many as the dead. They were all carrying rifles. I don't claim to know how that works.'

Ayaan nodded. 'We knew there had to be one of them providing close support.' One of them. A khasiis. The Somali word meant 'monster'. English speakers used the word 'lich'. The not-so-mindless dead. When a ghoul managed one way or another to preserve its intellect post mortem they also tended to develop certain new faculties. They learned to see the energy of death, just like Sarah did. Some of them learned to control other undead, to communicate with them telepathically and bend them to a Monstrous will. Ayaan had some experience with Monsters. She had shot one in the head years prior, one namedGary .Gary had not only survived that shot'he'd gone on to enslave an entire city. It took a raging inferno to finally bringGary down and Ayaan had lost plenty of friends in the process. Sarah had her own reason to hateGary . Her father was one of the friends Ayaan had lost. 'There must be a top-level asset nearby.'

'Top-level is right. To override their natural instinct to devour the living.' Fathia, Ayaan's second in command, leaned her chin on the stock of her assault rifle and looked scared. 'Gary could do that, for a little while. But even he had limits. If this army has been moving together for a long time, marching together'it would take a stronger khasiis thanGary . And there's only one of those that we know about.'

'The Russian,' Ayaan said. Her eyes narrowed to thin, angry slits. 'The Tsarevich.'

Sarah knew it had to be true. But what would the world's most pre-eminent monster be doing inEgypt ? Everyone knew the boy lich's story. He'd been injured in a car accident, a hit and run, back when there had still been cars. He had languished in a semi-comatose state for years in a hospital bed, half dead even before the Epidemic began. When the dead rose the boy had been abandoned where he lay, only to die and rise again with his intellect intact'and with new senses and abilities, new supernatural powers no one had ever seen before.

They said he had an army of the dead, and a cult of the living, and that in some parts ofSiberia he was considered to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. The stories about him always revolved around his cruelty and his power. They made him sound like a devil. For himself he claimed only to be a Tsarevich, a Prince of the Dead.

'He came here himself,' Ayaan said. Her cold eyes lit up, but grew no warmer. 'He finally made a mistake.'





Monster Planet





Chapter Two


Ayaan had a responsibility to the survivors'the living'she had left outside ofPort Said . She could have ordered Osman at any time to circle back and provide air support for the camp. She didn't. The other women in the helicopter started to trade sidelong glances, the occasional half question. 'We've never fought an enemy with guns before. Shouldn't we...?' Leyla asked.