The Mound Builders: Finale (part 1)
by demented20

The pain of dying was gone. He no longer remembered the torment of teeth tearing off chunks of his flesh. He didn't remember the sensation of claw-like hands scratching and scraping off his skin and meat to get to his bones. He no longer remembered the panic at the moment of death, when so much of his blood had spilled from his body. All of those different pains were now replaced with a new one. He hungered for life. The hunger consumed him. It burned inside him stronger than any other feeling had. There was no room for thought in his head now, only the hunger. He could feel life. He could taste it. He had to have it. Bruce pushed his dead torso off the ground. Clumps of congealing blood clung to his shirt as he continued to rise. Half his face was gone. His one eye stared blankly as he tried to find the nearest way out of this maze. In life it would have been easy to find the front door, but in death there was no room for reason, just the overriding need to satisfy his hunger. He felt direction coming to him from somewhere. It led him like a puppet on a string towards the door. It wanted to give him more, but he was too weak… too new. He couldn't accept what the master wanted to give him. Bruce stumbled down the steps and fell, but got up quickly. He no longer felt worldly pain anyhow. He moved towards the center of the Glen. That's where the master wanted him to go.

The dirt was packed hard here. Under Anna's shoes it almost felt like pavement, but she knew the ground had been tamped down by hundreds or thousands of zombies over centuries. This is where many had stayed and waited for a chance to attack the living again. As Anna thought on how the Mound Builders could have possibly trapped the zombies down here, the answer tried to come to her. Hundreds of memories threatened to push into her mind. Pain came with those memories and she didn't need the distractions now. She pressed the heels of her hands into her temples. People had lost so much, and Anna wasn't willing to sacrifice anything. Maybe she'd have to, just like the Mound Builders had been forced to do. Anna hoped that if she wasn't smarter or stronger than they'd been, maybe she'd be luckier.

She crept slowly, moving her head and the flashlight side to side before every step. Her right hand searched for the machete hanging at her waist. She gripped the wooden handle and pulled the blade out. The freshly sharpened edge bit into the thick leather sheath as it emerged. She held it out from her body, ready to slice in an instant. She had to move around fallen stones and step carefully to avoid the shadows. She imagined a zombie waiting behind every corner and in every shadow. She thought she'd planned for anything, until a creature moved out of a shadow with blur like quickness.

Anna's arm swung immediately. The creature charged at her baring its ancient teeth. This old zombie had been a warrior in life. The frayed bands at his arms told of his victories and his size said that he had been formidable. Since he'd died, this creature had eaten hundreds of people. He was too quick for most people and too strong, but Anna was pretty strong and very, very quick. If only her aim had been slightly better. Anna's swing was a flash of quick muscle movement. No wasted motion or wasted energy, but the blade struck the creature's dry dead shoulder knocking loose flesh from its arm before the blade buried itself into the side of the monster's neck and jaw. The blow knocked the creature off track, but it didn't kill it. Anna pulled her blade free and circled to where the zombie had been.

Another creature came at her and then another. They tried to surround her, but now she faced the three of them. The first monster and the biggest one attacked again, and Anna surged towards him, adding the awesome strength of her legs to her slice. She swung her machete low. The heavy sharp blade sliced through the dried skin and abdomen of the creature and through its spine. The legs fell to the left and the rest to the right. Anna tried to move forward for her next swipe, but the blade had gotten caught between two rocks. Like an animal letting go of food, Anna let go of her weapon. The next creature was already on her. All she saw was the creature's mouth coming towards her throat. She wanted to jump away, but she couldn't risk getting bitten on the ankle by the half-high zombie behind her. Instead her arms shot up and took the creature by either side of its head. Anna's legs were firm, but the pressing hunger of the creature was so great that it forced her back with only the push of its head. Anna's still pumped arms flexed again. The triceps muscle of her right arm flexed like it was trying to jump off her body and her left bicep rippled and swelled into a jagged softball sized mountain applying tremendous pressure. The monster hissed and Anna roared. Its hunger pitted against her strength. She started to twist. The monster bore in for the kill, and Anna twisted harder. Her body shook from the effort and her arms flexed from exertion, bulging and straining until it seemed that her sweat covered skin could no longer contain them. And when her muscle fibers seemed to have flexed to their maximum, there was a single loud crack that reverberated through the underground cave system. Ethan even heard it over the hum of the machines in the pump room.

Anna exhaled through her nose like a bull and looked down at the head she'd twisted off with her bare hands. The monster's eyes were still locked on her, and its mouth still tried to bite her even if its body lay useless on the ground. Anna moved towards the wall, away from the other monsters and raised the head as high as she could, before smashing it into the rock wall. The bone broke open and what was left of the monster's brain fell to the ground. Anna couldn't revel in her feat of strength for long. She jumped over a rock formation to avoid the third monster.

It was smaller and quicker than the others. It darted back and forth behind the rocks, in and out of the shadows. It hissed like a snake as it too snapped at Anna. Its teeth were black with age and coated with layer upon layer of dead flesh. Anna's own teeth were on edge hoping that no more monsters were hiding while this monster was toying with her. She couldn't take the chance anymore. When the monster darted behind a rock formation, instead of moving away from it like she had been doing, Anna ran behind it and kicked it in the back hard enough to make it hit the wall. It hissed again and tried to turn around to attack her, but Anna took it by the shoulders to keep it from spinning and put her foot at the base of its back to keep it pinned against the wall. The creature put its hands against the wall and tried to bench press itself off. Anna's entire upper body tightened to keep it in place, but she didn't struggle with it long. If it wanted to press itself back, she'd let it.

She reversed her grip and pulled back on the monster's shoulders instead of pushing them, but her foot remained firmly on its lower back. The creature's spine bent backwards as Anna's surging muscles forced a bow into it. Her eyes narrowed; her biceps contracted, and the creature's back bent past a human's limits. The old bones cracked. Pieces fell to the dirt floor. Dried tendons ruptured. Anna's eyes narrowed and her lip curled into an involuntary snarl as she pulled back harder. The spine was at its limits, but other things broke first. The ribs pulled against the sternum until they separated from each other. Finally the sternum cracked under on the onslaught. Its shoulders dislocated and the monster's stomach distended as Anna forced its body backwards. She pulled back harder until a hairline crack formed at the base of the creature's spine. Unlike with the neck earlier, this was a slow break. Vertebra by vertebra, Anna folded this monster in half until the back of its head rested against the back of its calves.

Anna finally took a breath and looked at what she'd done. She'd awed herself a little bit. She actually smiled as she retrieved her machete. She stepped past the two dead monsters and paused at the broken one. She raised her machete and sliced into its head before continuing down the path.

The General paced, which was as close to a full on panic as he ever got. He'd lost contact with two his units including his advanced unit and people were starting to give him looks, looks that questioned him, looks that wondered if he knew what he was doing. Those looks also contained fear. Fear wasn't a problem, it could even be a useful tool, so long as the leader had some answers. The General had none, and that was starting to worry him.

He was reluctant to send another unit in, but he knew he had to do something. He was trying to formulate an order to give when headlights shined down the tunnel and the roar of an accelerating engine echoed. An armored personnel carrier emerged from the tunnel followed by an overloaded school bus with a burned out headlight. The second APC came out behind the bus. All three vehicles stopped on the road. The hatches of the armored vehicles started to open, but the people were getting off the bus even before that. They were rather orderly as they moved quickly. Some even stopped to kiss the damp asphalt as they looked back down the darkened tunnel and shuddered. That open mouth of the tunnel used to be a welcomed landmark signaling that they were nearly home. Now it looked like the opening to hell itself.

The General rushed to the parked vehicles with a couple of aids in tow. Soldiers stood very near the bus, but none knew quite what to do. They weren't even sure what was going on. The General looked at the civilians getting off the bus, but instead went to the first APC. He climbed onto it to get to the sergeant driving it.

"What the hell is this?", the General demanded. "Who are these people?"

The sergeant pulled off his helmet and looked down at the General from his hatch. "Those people are survivors of some sort of biological agent, Sir. They can tell you more than I can."

"Are you trying to tell me that out of that huge housing development that these are the only survivors?"

"No sir, there is supposed to be another busload of people on the way out, but the other bus was moving slower and got separated from that one."

"Two busloads? There are only two busloads of people alive out of that entire valley?"

"That's what I was told by a Major Michael Bernhardt. We traveled quite a ways into the development sir, and I saw no evidence to counter him. The houses are empty, the streets are deserted and there are blood stains everywhere, but not one body to be found. There aren't even any stray cats or dogs or even any birds. The entire valley is dead sir except this bus of people and one more coming behind it."

The sergeant's words sent a chill down the General's spine and that wasn't easy to do. "Where is your Captain?"

"He ordered us to escort that bus out while he left on a side mission of his own."

The General rubbed his chin as he thought. "Did you see any evidence of the recon unit we sent in?"

The sergeant shook his head. "No sir. They might have gone even more deeply in looking for the lost chopper. We didn't see hide nor hair of them. We tried them on the radio nonstop until we got into the tunnel."

The General nodded. "Well done Sergeant. I suppose we wait to see if this other bus appears."

They didn't have to wait long. The words had barely left the General's mouth when the sound of duel diesel engines pushed to their limits reverberated in the tunnel. Heads turned and saw twin headlight beams gyrating from side to side like flashlights in shaky hands. The bus rocketed out of the mouth of the tunnel moving at nearly 70 mph. It swerved to the left nearly missing a parked jeep, then the huge bus swerved to the right nearly hitting a group of people who'd just gotten off the school bus. It was too dark to see inside the huge vehicle until there was a muzzle flash. People pressed towards the front and sides of the bus. Their frantic movements were shown in stop time by the gunshots. The bus swerved, more guns fired, and people started jumping out despite the bus' speed. They fell and roll along the pavement happy to be out of that bus.

Finally the brakes engaged. Thick black trails of burning rubber trailed behind the wheels leading to the bus that came to rest in a gully. The General and many other soldiers ran down the road. The darkened rear window was kicked out and people spilled to the ground below. They scrambled to their feet and ran away from the bus. Before the General could even begin to ask what was happening, he was face to face with a zombie.

The monster's chest was riddled with bullet holes, knife stabs and slices. A bullet had gouged out the side of its skull, but it stood near the rear of the bus despite it all. Raw human meat hung from its open mouth and hunger sat in its beady eyes.

"Shoot the goddamned thing!", a man wearing a gun on his hip yelled to the soldiers arrayed behind the bus. They looked at the General for guidance, but he was frozen, not from fear, but inner conflict. He'd never thought to order anyone to fire on an unarmed civilian, but the monster standing before him was the single most terrifying thing he'd ever laid eyes on. There was no way for the General to know that these were the remains of the man who had caused the deaths on that bus. He'd hidden in the bathroom until he'd died and begun to feed. He'd killed three so far, and his hunger wasn't nearly sated.

"Shoot it!", more voices yelled. The monster that had once been a man picked out his next meal and ran towards it, ran faster that a bullet riddled creature should have. Its target didn't wait for an order from his general. He turned his M-16 and opened fire.

"Put him down!", the General ordered after the first soldier had already started firing. The other soldiers opened up. When the bullets had stopped flying the man lay in pieces about ten feet from the soldier who he'd ran towards. After the automatic gunfire ended everything seemed a little quiet, even peaceful. The twin engines of the bus were idling and the people had stopped screaming. Soldiers escorted people away from the big bus towards safety, but other soldiers including the General moved closer to the broken rear window. The General pulled out his pistol as he and several other soldiers climbed onto the back bumper and looked inside. Their stomachs turned at what they saw.

A young woman of about twenty lay on the back seat with two people, one man and one woman, eating her innards. Ragged flaps of skin hung open exposing where her heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and spleen had been. Her chest cavity was a soupy mess. Her eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling while the two creatures were covered in still her hot blood, gnawing her flesh down to the bones. The monsters looked up at the soldiers looking at them, but they didn't stop eating. The General's held his pistol in a shaky hand as he aimed at the first monster's head.  He pulled the trigger spraying blood and bits of bone all over the already gory back end of the bus. Another soldier blew a big hole in the other monster's head. The shaken soldiers stepped off the bumper to see the man with the gun on his hip walk past them in a hurry.

"You forgot one", Jack said and pulled his .44 from the holster. The General hurried back in time to see Jack aim his gun at the center of the half eaten young woman's forehead.

"What are you doing?", the general asked a heartbeat before the woman's mouth curled into a hungry snarl and a Jack pulled the trigger. Everybody got off the back of the bus and Jack turned to the General. He wanted to know what was going on, so Jack told him. The General's face blanched a couple of times, but by the end of it he was already forming orders. As soon as Jack stopped talking, the General starting giving the orders that had been eluding him minutes before.

He pointed to his aid. "Have every person who has been inside the Glen or come in contact with anybody who has been inside the Glen quarantined. Set up a tarp wall to separate the men from the women then have everybody strip to nothing. I mean nothing, and have their bodies searched for fresh marks. Anybody with a bite or a scratch or fever or other signs of sickness will be held in isolation."

"But Sir, you've been in contact with people from Hidden Glen", the aid said.

"I know", the General began and handed over his pistol. "Get that tarp set up because I need to be the first one inspected."

Anna slowed when she saw blood splattered on the wall. It wasn't fresh, but it wasn't ancient either. It looked like this was as far as Ethan had gotten on his trip down here twenty years earlier. She was in uncharted territory now. She couldn't believe that she was doing this. Not too long ago, she'd hated going into her own basement, and now she was traveling in an underground cave system on a mission to kill some ancient zombie king.

The trail narrowed slightly before opening up to another chamber. This one was musty with hints of lingering rot even after the monsters had gone. She shined her light around the room before entering. There'd been a partial collapse of the ceiling here, but it didn't look like an immediate danger to walk under. She did keep away from the fallen rocks though. She'd planned to hurry through this room until a creature filled the doorway at the far side of the chamber. She reached to her waist and pulled the machete free. One on one this creature had no chance. She'd cut it down and keep going.

"You must not know what I did to your buddies back there", Anna boasted and took a step closer to the monster. "It's too bad you guys don't have brains. This would be so much easier if you had a concept of fear." The monster slowly inched its way towards Anna, but this lone monster didn't even get her adrenaline flowing.

"You know, I don't even really need this machete for you. I could kill you with these", Anna bragged and held up her arms in a double biceps pose. She glanced at her own arms, watching the fibers gather and her peaks rise. The striations deepened until her upper arms were packed with hard serrated muscle. She could have flexed harder, made her muscles bigger, but why waste the effort. She lowered her arms. "You are too stupid to even be scared", Anna joked to the monster who hadn't even understood English before he'd died. She moved forward to attack when she heard shuffling behind her.

She spun around so quickly that her own braid smacked her in the face. She shined the light on this monster. It must have followed her, staying far enough back for her not to notice. She inched towards the wall and shined the lights side to side from one zombie to the other. They were so far apart that she couldn't attack them at the same time, and if she attacked one, it would leave her open for an attack from behind. She wasn't about to underestimate the speed of these monsters after the attack by the zombie she'd broken backwards a few minutes ago. The first creature came towards her and there was one behind it and another and another. They fanned out giving her no lanes of escape. She hoped for an opening, but didn't see one.

These old creatures moved towards her slowly and with some thought. The space between Anna and the monsters was getting smaller by the step. They were like the lid of a giant box closing on her, but she wasn't worried. She'd figure this out before it was too late. Too many people were riding on her for doubt to set in. "I guess you guys don't want to go out like your friends back there", she said and gripped the handle of the machete so hard that her fingers lost color. Without another thought, Anna screamed at the top of her lungs and charged.

The General was cleared. He had no marks on his body at all, nor did he seem to have a fever. He was buttoning his shirt when a soldier jumped off a moving jeep, ran over to him and said breathlessly, "They're coming, Sir!"

"Who's coming soldier?"

"Those things sir! We shot one fifty times and it kept coming. A group of them swung around and almost boxed us in. We barely got out alive."

"How close are they to the tunnel?"

"Two clicks… maybe a little less", the soldier answered still shaking with adrenaline.

The General pressed his lips together and turned to look at the soldiers under his command. "Dodds come here! I want you and your EOD guys to wire that tunnel and drop that goddamned hill down. Use everything you have if you must, but when I give the order I want that tunnel sealed again."

"Yes sir!", the EOD team leader yelled and instantly got to work. Two armored personnel carriers drove through the tunnel and took up positions to protect the operation while the explosives were placed in the weakened tunnel. They shined lights down into the dark valley below them, and were even more on edge when they didn't see anything.

One soldier working a spotlight quickly panned it to one side and squinted his eyes. "You see something?", another soldier asked.

"Yeah", the guy answered absently and kept searching. "There! Did you see her?"

"Who?"

"The little girl!", he screamed. "I saw her run to the other side of that car down there!" Two more soldiers turned their lights in the general direction and after a moment of searching they saw her. The little platinum blonde child looked to be five or six. She was missing two teeth in the front and her dimples showed even when she wasn't smiling. She stood out in full view for a heartbeat or two before she slipped back behind a car.

"Hey, little girl come here! We're here to help. We're the Army. We won't hurt you!", the soldier who'd seen her yelled, but the girl didn't respond. They spotted the area in lights and then the saw a little boy come out from behind a tree on the side of the road. The kid was about the same age as the girl. He wore little jeans rolled up at the cuffs and a plaid shirt tucked into the little pants. He carried something in his hands. It was hard to make out at the distance, but he had it clutched to his chest before sitting it down in front of him.

"There's another kid! We have to go get them."

"Man, those could be monsters for all we know."

"Hell no! You saw the girl and now there's a boy. They're as alive as me or you. Monsters don't have dimples and play with toys. Their parents are probably dead, and I'll be damned if I let some kids stay on this side of the tunnel. We're going to blow the damn thing."

The ranking soldier's mind was going over pros and cons. He was leaning towards no, but then the girl had come back into view for a split second as she ran from behind the car to join the little boy under the tree about 150 feet from the APC. It was against his better judgment and his orders, but he sighed and pointed. "You two, go get the kids. You two provide cover from street level. We'll keep a watch up here."

The four men dismounted. The two guys providing cover kept a distance and kept their fingers on the triggers as the other two soldiers approached the kids. "Hey, you guys you want to come with us?", the first soldier asked in his nicest voice. "I think I have some candy", he called out as he got closer. He started searching his pockets. He thought he had another lollipop left from this morning. He had to circle around the tree slightly to get at the kids, but as he did, he found the lollipop.

"Hey, do you guys want this sucker?", he asked as he came close enough to see the kids now. The soldier frowned when the kids didn't look at him right away, but then the little girl had turned towards him. "I only have one. Which one of you is going to get it first?", he coaxed and put the candy within reach of her tiny arms. Her tiny face angelic face was stoic until he pressed the lollipop closer to her. Her lips parted and her turned up into a gap toothed smile as she looked away from his face and towards his gift.

The other soldier with him was trying to work his way around to grab the little boy in case he made run for it and that put him closer. He thought at he might snatch the boy's toy to get his attention before grabbing him. He came out of a shadow into the light and frowned. Something was wrong. That wasn't a damned toy. It was dead cat without a drop of blood left in it. He took a quick breath to yell to his friend.

The girl's angelic little face turned up towards the first soldier and her eyes caught his before she looked down at his gift. Her chubby little hands moved towards him. "It's okay go ahead and take it", the soldier offered as the girl's face moved towards his. He heard his buddy's voice scream, "Don't!", just as the little girl bit deeply into the soldier's hand. The other soldier raised his rifle to shoot the girl, but the little boy bit him on his inner thigh, sinking his surprisingly sharp teeth into the tender flesh.

"Fuck!" the APC commander breathed as the two cover soldiers ran to help their brethren. The commander watched them run and was about to order the driver to move them closer when he felt hands clutch his throat from behind. He pulled away, leaving a layer of skin on the claws that had grabbed him and was face to face with the death distorted face of a shirtless man. The commander didn't get a chance to scream. The zombie bit into his face.

Anna's calf bunched beneath her skin. Her quads and hamstrings were tighter than piano wire as she launched herself forward. She twisted her body in the air, turning her shoulder to the side. She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Her muscles tightened harder. Stria sliced up her calf and the heads of quads and even into the bricks of her abs as she put all her strength into this. She drove her shoulder into the chest of one of the long dead zombies to create room for a swing of her machete. She hit him like an NFL linebacker. It stumbled backwards and fell over a rock on the floor. Anna was already behind the monsters now, charging at the next one with her machete cocked behind her head and tension building in her muscles.

Her right arm was petrified muscular perfection as she sliced at a head. The blade struck just above eye level. Bits of bone flew off like shrapnel at impact. Anna felt the resistance of the thick skull, but she powered through it slicing through the bottom of his brain before her blade slammed against the far side of his cranium. The blade didn't go all the way through, but it didn't matter. She yanked it out and bounded backwards out of the reach of the other zombies. They didn't attack her as one this time. They fanned out and staggered their advance. It was like they were learning how she fought, how she attacked.

Anna didn't recognize this in time, and she attacked the monster on the left. She went at it with all the fury of her earlier attacks. She sliced downward this time trying to cleave this monster's head in two. Her movements were quick and precise for a woman who'd only been learning to use a blade like this for several days. It could have moved left or right more than a foot and Anna's chop would have still struck a terrible blow to this zombie, but it didn't move left or right. It lunged directly at her. It moved so quickly that Anna couldn't even stop her swing. The blade flew harmlessly behind its head and her elbows hit the monster's shoulders. The sick squishing of the dead flesh nearly made her vomit.

She was chest to chest with the creature, only inches from its teeth. Its snarling lipless mouth aimed for her arm as the other two monsters moved in behind and beside her. Anna did the only thing she could; she dropped to the ground and rolled away from the monsters over the uneven floor. She'd been forced to drop her machete in the process. She'd been afraid to roll with it, worrying about cutting herself on the sharp blade. She quickly jumped to her feet and stood in darkness outside the cone of her flashlight. She could see the zombies moving towards her though, silhouetted by the light behind them. She could also see the light glinting off her blade resting in the dust. Anna's attention was focused on the blade and the approaching monsters. She wasn't paying any attention to anything behind her. The danger was to her front, or so she thought. She stood trying to figure the best plan of attack when she felt her braid lift off her back. She nearly jumped out of her skin. She tripped and fell on her ass.

She looked on helplessly as more and more creatures came from the new opening in the wall. They spilled out from another chamber that Anna hadn't known was there. The original three monsters were coming from her left while more and more monsters came from that opening. It was like they'd been waiting in there just for her. Anna looked off to her left and saw her flashlight get kicked by a gnarled foot. The light spun, giving a disco effect to the musty room and showing Anna just how many monsters were filling up this room. A feeling of impending doom spread inside Anna, as more monsters came in, so many that they could hardly fit. Another foot kicked the light and the bulb popped with a bright blue flash thrusting Anna into darkness while the monsters moved in to begin their grizzly work.

Indecision and indescribable fear gripped Anna as she sat on her butt in the complete darkness. Seconds ticked away like years while she waited, anticipating her own end. Then through the black she began to see a light. It was a faint red glow barely bright enough for Anna to see a few inches in front of her face, but the glow grew brighter. And as it did, the skin around Anna's neck started to tingle. Her hands shot to the necklace of stones and the light brightened, brighter than her flashlight had been. It pushed the darkness back, illuminating the monsters and stopping them in their tracks. The sounds of their shuffling feet disappeared. The monsters hissed and grunted in frustration but couldn't advance against the light. Anna was too shocked and overjoyed to realize what was happening. There were at least thirty monsters around her maybe more, standing stock still as the light grew brighter filling the room, eliminating the shadows.

Anna got to her feet quickly, half expecting the monsters to charge her, but they didn't. They stood like morbid statues. She thought she saw one of them move a little, but once her gaze turned on it, it froze. Now as Anna took a breath and allowed the initial shock wore off, she could feel the monsters' combined hunger. It was nearly overwhelming. They were all like drowning men, and she was a breath of air. They were desperate to get to her, but the power she'd been given held them in check. She remembered Little Deer say that the power would bend to her will. In the heat of the moment, Anna had wanted more than anything for the zombies to stop. And stop they had. Maybe this entire thing wouldn't be as hard as she thought. She saw her machete sitting on the floor and made a step towards it before she felt a force oppose her will.

It was a sinister voice that spoke directly to the monsters. It pushed against her will, against the power of the Mound Builders. She took another step towards the machete, but several monsters moved enough to block her path. Anna frowned and tried to go another way, but the same creatures moved again. Frustration built in her and then the tactics changed. In an instant the voice went from trying to command all the monsters to move to commanding just one of them to move. All the force of the other will fueled the ancient monster and it lunged at Anna. Its claw-like hands reached out for her throat. Anna leaned away and thrust up her hands catching the monster's wrists.

Anna's face twisted as she strained to keep its hand from clutching her throat. She sucked in a sharp breath between tight quivering lips as the monster pushed harder still, but Anna set her feet and held firm. She absorbed this monster's best and decided to show its master her best. Anna's eyes narrowed and her all at once her muscles began to flex. First her shoulders and back grew. Deep fissures formed as muscles seemed to rupture and burst beneath her skin. Her arms thickened, growing and growing as she flexed harder pouring more of her strength onto this now helpless monster. "I am not down here to fail", Anna grunted, not to the monster who could neither hear nor comprehend, but to its master.

Her biceps grew and grew until they were pressing against her burgeoning forearms. Hot vascular unyielding muscle met and now Anna began to straighten her arms. The monster's arms were forced back, and back and back until the hands were well away from her face. It tried to snap at her hands with its mouth, but it couldn't reach that far. In snapped at her a couple of times, and Anna decided to not allow it a third time.

With a quick motion, she reversed her push and pulled the monster forward as she stepped out of the way. She stuck her foot out and the monster tripped over it and down it went. It scrambled to get up, but Anna reached down and wrapped both her hands around the monster's right ankle. It tried to twist to get to her, but Anna stomped her foot on the monster's back and kept a solid grip on its leg. "You don't want me to get my weapon", Anna grunted as she struggled to hold the zombie down. "I told you before that I DON'T NEED IT!", Anna yelled and began to violently twist the monster's leg back and forth. Cracks and pops sounded in the chamber, but she was just beginning. Finally she was facing the opposite way of the monster while she still held its leg. She took a couple of quick breaths before she held it and pulled back as hard as she could.

Anna's glorious body, bathed in sweat, shook as she strained. Anna opened her eyes a little so she could make sure the other monsters were staying put. While she was scanning the room, she saw the peak of her own biceps muscle. She eyed it now, barely believing that the thick striated mass of muscle fibers and strength was hers. She flexed it tighter, feeling a tingle flow through her as the muscle tightened and flexed harder. The monster's hip joint gave some more and the cracks began radiating out from the pelvis. Anna felt a wave of panic. It wasn't finished a thought came from far down inside her. This hip wasn't strong enough. Anna had never seen her body get like this, never. With each beat of her racing heart, more and more blood pumped through her throbbing veins and pulsing capillaries feeding her growing muscles. She pulled back harder and a rush of energy filled her as her biceps got even thicker, more defined, like her skin was painted on. It barely disguised the insanity of her flex. Then it ended as the pelvis surrendered to her might. The hip joint disintegrated. The zombie's old leathery skin had no chance to hold. With a few sickening rips and tears, the monster's leg came off in Anna's hands. She held the leg out in front of her, not feeling a bit of triumph at her feat. She felt anger that it had broken so easily. Her muscles were more pumped and more ripped than they'd ever been. She loved this feeling.

With anger flowing through her, Anna turned and swung the leg like an oversized club smashing the foot and heel into the monster's own head. It hit with a thunk. She slammed the heel into the skull again and again until the skull was crushed; the monster was killed, and the knee joint was destroyed. Anna pulled, twisted, and pried to detach the lower leg. She discarded it and now only held the femur in her hands. It was the thickest, heaviest, strongest bone in the human body, and to her it felt like a particularly dangerous weapon.

She'd started to feel a small amount of triumph, when the evil voice turned angry. With its chosen vessel defeated, the other power's full rage emerged. A massive wave of power flooded the room, and the magic of the Mound Builders could no longer hold the zombies at bay. They moved towards her as one. Anna gripped her new weapon, her beautiful face twisted with fury and anticipation as the zombies charged. Anna sucked in a deep breath, only yell at the top of her lungs and charge into the oncoming wave of monsters clutching the femur with both hands.

She zeroed in on one monster and twisted her body at the waist. When her body was torqued and her muscles held all the power they could, Anna unleashed a powerful swing. The crack of the head of the femur hitting the skull was like a bowling ball hitting pins, but that was just one monster down. There were others and they closed in while Anna wound up for another swing. Her every sense and sinew were turned to maximum for this one act. She generated power from the balls of her feet all the way through her rippling legs, corrugated abdominals, distended pectorals, indestructible arms, and wide muscle capped shoulders, driving the leg bone into a charging zombie's skull. On impact it sounded like a gunshot and the head simply shattered. Bits of brain splashed against the wall and fragments of skull showered the floor as the now headless zombie began to fall. Anna barely took a breath as she slammed this bone against another monster's skull. The motions were flowing now like water down a hill. Nothing seemed hard now. She killed a monster with every other swing now. Until there were no more.

Anna's breath came quickly in short pants as her chest rose and fell from her excursions. Loose strands of her jet black hair stuck to her forehead and thick rivulets of sweat rolled down her sinewy body. Each muscle was etched and powerful as she stood with the femur in her right and looking down at the pile of dead zombies all around her. She'd killed them all, and now stood in a jumble of broken bones and rotting flesh. She turned towards her machete and finally lifted it from the dirt then tossed the femur atop one of the piles. She kicked her flashlight out of the way. She no longer needed it. The red light was all around her now. It didn't shine from the necklace it just shined wherever she looked and wherever she walked. She slid her machete into the sheath and continued down the path.

She was more attuned to the Mound Builder's power now. She was far from an expert at using it, but as time passed she got more understanding. She felt the taint of undeath all around her, and she could feel that there were zombies near her, but they were hardly able to get within site of her, and after her display at killing more than two dozen monsters he didn't bother to send more. The silence gave Anna time to think, time to plan, and time to learn. Learning was perhaps the most important. Her father had taught her that it was important to learn about her opponent whether she was arm wrestling, playing chess, poker, or pool. The opponent was more important than the rules of the game or her ability to play it. She was playing against the other person, and Anna had to know more before she continued. She wanted to move forward quickly and end this so she could save her son, but she couldn't let those emotions get her killed. Instead she stopped and took another seat on the floor. She shut her eyes and allowed the knowledge to come.

A drop of dark red blood ran down the armored side of the personnel carrier following the smeared track of the drop that had gone before it. The drop gathered speed as it slid down towards the pavement adding to the pool of blood there. Three monsters moved in, their dry dead tongues extended. They fell to their knees and lapped up the blood like eager puppies. These were all fresh zombies who had yet to feed since the pickings in the Glen had become very slim. The life was gone from the body so no more bites were taken from the meat and flesh of the soldier, but blood was different. Until it dried, blood held onto the taste of life. They cleaned the asphalt and the side of the APC and the inside of the crew compartment in search of the taste of life. A woman, still wearing the dress she'd worn to her job four days earlier licked the blood off the floor, and didn't look up when the radio started to crackle.

"Outpost one, this is the EOD team leader. We're almost finished here. We need about seven more minutes. It's been quiet. I guess these monsters are roaming around down there in the valley." The explosives expert laughed then continued, "Well anyway, I hope you guys aren't bored to tears. Give us a heads up if you see anything. Out."

It only took minutes for the dead soldiers to stir. It used to take hours even after death for the taint of undeath to take hold, but now it was faster. The hunger grew inside the soldiers and they sat up, in search of life. Something else entered them as they took the first steps of their undeath. It was a voice that tempered their burning desire to feed. It gave a sliver of order to their monstrous existence. It allowed their freshly dead brains time to form thoughts, and then when those thoughts were formed it gently nudged them in the right direction. While the other monsters milled about searching for another drop of blood or scrap of human meat, the dead soldiers walked towards the tunnel. The more the voice spoke to them, the more control it gained, the more it focused them and their hunger. They would be rewarded for following the orders. Their reward would be the same as the reward for the child zombies who had lured them to their deaths… their first bite into human flesh.

Far behind the sea of monsters moving towards the tunnel, one zombie moved alone. His pace had quickened as more of his hunger had been abated, not by feeding, but from the soothing tone of his master's voice. He was running, perhaps not as quickly as he could have in life, but now he never tired. The idea of fatigue was foreign as his master led him directly to a house. Its door had been broken in by a mob of zombies days before and the family inside had been eaten. A day later that same family had eaten their neighbors. Bruce wasn't aware of any of this. He only followed his master voice down into the basement. They now dead family had barricaded their basement door, but Bruce leaned into it and used his shoulder to wedge it open enough for his body to slip through. A ragged piece of skin caught on a large splinter and slowly peeled off his face as he moved through the doorway. He left it as a grim souvenir as he ambled down the stairs. This basement had been breached by some of the ancient zombies, and now Bruce entered one of the holes. The ancient ones had worked tirelessly to dig themselves out once the Mound had been destroyed, but now Bruce attempted to crawl his way in. He had to get underground. His master needed him, and when he was successful, Bruce knew that his reward would be greater than another. He'd get to kill Anna Bernhardt.

Ethan put his hand against the damp stone wall to catch his breath. Getting from one side of the Glen to the other had seemed easier on paper than in real life. It hadn't helped that the underground path was quite winding, but here he was. He reached into a bag and pulled out a little more semtex. He put it against the backside of a cinderblock wall and detonated it making a hole just big enough for him to squeeze through. He looked back into the darkness of the tunnel behind him and could only imagine what the original construction workers had thought when they had come down here. They didn't try and explore the cave system under the Glen. They had simply walled up the entrances and got to work installing the massive natural gas tanks.

The terrain of Hidden Glen was a huge obstacle to every utility in the area. The valley floor was so low that it was beneath both the water mains and the gas mains for the area. The water people had simply built a very simple pumping station inside the Glen to boost what would have been a trickle of water without it. The developer had disguised the pumping station as a row of building, and even if everybody knew what it was they weren't worried about it. The gas utility had been so lucky. No one wanted a natural gas pumping facility next to their homes, so they'd put them underground. Most residents had no idea that under those big open areas on either side of the Glen was massive amounts of natural gas. It was all very safe, and as Ethan had seen, very well constructed. It made sure that the there was never an interruption in the natural gas service for residents of Hidden Glen, but as Ethan began ramping up the power on the pumps, he was making sure that there would be no more Hidden Glen.

Ethan started setting more semtex near the joints of pipes and in bends because those were always good spots. Machinery was humming and everything was set. He hated putting things on a timer, but was either that or figure out some way to run miles of detcord. How the hell could he have even carried that much detonation cord? He laughed out loud as he figured out the answer. "I'd have gotten Anna to carry it all", he said as he squeezed through the hole back into the passage. "Too bad I didn't think of that before."

Anna entered a trance and allowed the story to unfold in her head. She experienced the history of this place as a narrative. It was as if all of her ancestors were telling it to her around a slowly rolling fire. It had all begun on a crisp winter's morning. A European explorer came down the Great River with a part of northern tribesmen. The lake area tribes rarely came that far south, but they traveled as interpreters since the explorer didn't speak the native tongues. He was respectful and even deferential to the Elders and to the tribe's customs. His respect was returned and he was given great hospitality. He didn't stay long. In only a very few days he was gone, back down the river. The visit by the strange Outlander was treated as a curiosity by all except one Elder, the youngest Elder. His name was Shining Sun. He was a powerful shaman and warrior. His voice carried much weight and he spoke of an oncoming doom. He had a vivid vision of the future. He'd seen the land spoiled and the tribe pushed off its land, scattered and nearly wiped out. The other leaders said that he was being alarmist, but he said the invasion of the Outlanders wouldn't come like a tornado, it would come like a slow rising floor. The invasion would be so slow that by the time the tribe realized it was happening it would be much too late. He told the other leaders that the explorer's arrival signaled the beginning of the end of the tribe unless they listened to him. The rejected him again. He vowed to come up with a way to stop it. He told them that the explorer would return and this time some of his men would stay without permission and claim land as their own. The Elders rejected his ideas for a third time, and he left. He shut himself off from the tribe and no one saw him for years.

The people forgot the warnings until one day the Explorer came back. He was polite and cordial again. The tribe gave him the same hospitality as before. He stayed a short time then left. The people thought that Shining Sun had been wrong, but in only a week's time the Explorer and his men had erected a fort a few miles from the main village. They said that it was for the purpose of trading pelts and firs, but more and more Outlanders came to the fort as time went on. Then Shining Sun came from his seclusion. He told everybody that he'd found a powerful magic that would end the Outlanders' threat.

He brought the Elders out to the forest where they saw him slay a coyote with a knife. They were forced to watch as the animal slowly bled to death. The pain and terror in its eyes was palpable. There was never a need to disturb the flow of life by allowing an animal to suffer, but Shining Sun seemed to revel in the coyote's agony, but before the animal died Shining Sun stepped over to straddle the beast. It seemed that he would finish it off, but instead he opened his mouth and bit into the scruff at the back of the animal's neck. They wondered why he'd added to the dying creature's torment, but after the coyote was dead it rose up. People gasped when the dead coyote shook itself off, walked over and sat down next to Shining Sun, its new master.

He explained excitedly that the tribe could use the numbers of the Outlanders against them. An army of the walking dead was unstoppable. It took slightly longer for a man to rise up from death, but the more dead were raised, the stronger the spell became. He offered to share his control and the secrets of his spell with the other Elders, but they told him that what he'd done was an abomination. It was an affront to everything that the tribe stood for. They said that they had lived by their ways, and if need be they would die the same way. It was the last time Shining Sun would allow the other Elders to reject him. He would fight the war himself. The Elders vowed to stop him, but the tribe turned on itself. Some agreed that what Shining Sun had done was evil, while others joined him. Brave warriors loyal to the Elders attacked Shining Sun and his men, but they were killed and raised up to be used against the very tribe they had promised to protect. His army grew as men died. These were the oldest of the zombies. These were the ones who fought by their master's side even in the present day.

Anna thought that she'd learned enough. She wanted to pull herself into the present to complete her mission, but her ancestors weren't nearly finished with her. They drew her in deeper. The smooth narrative of the history ended. They wanted her to feel what they had felt. They wanted her to understand the horror that they'd lived through, so they let her live their memories. These were the disjointed painful memories of people who'd been dead for centuries. Through the eyes of a hunter she watched the very first man become into a zombie. A brave warrior tried to confront one of Shining Sun's men and had been killed by one of the rogue shaman's lieutenants. She witnessed a mother being eaten from the perspective of her terrified son. She was a scared daughter watching her elderly grandfather pray for the strength of his youth in order to fight off a wave of monsters to save his family.

Through the eyes of a scared boy who'd taken refuge in the meeting house Anna saw the tribe's leaders try to find a solution to the evil of undeath. They tried to use their own magic to reverse Shining Sun's spell, but it was much too powerful. Anna listened as they explained that every magic must have a source of power, and whatever Shining Sun was using was very strong. They sent a group of the tribe's best warriors to search for the source. They fought their way to the caverns beneath the valley. Nearly all the warriors were killed, but the Elders now understood that Shining Sun had built his spell in the caverns using the power of the valley to fuel it. Anna marveled when the Elders selflessly proposed a solution for the problem. If they could not defeat Shining Sun and his army of dead, they would contain him. Seven leaders, the most powerful and bravest of the tribe agreed to stay in the caves and hold back Shining Sun's spell for all time if need be. They made preparations for their plan and waited until they were sure that Shining Sun was in position before they launched their attack.

The seven Elders that Anna had already met lead a war party of a hundred into the valley and down into the caves. Once they were underground the other tribesmen sealed all the exits to the underground caverns trapping the Elders, a hundred brave warriors along with Shining Sun and more than a thousand of his zombies underground. Fighting raged underground while the Elders constructed a powerful spell of their own. While the fighting continued underground, the surviving tribe members built the greatest of all of their mounds. This one was build to exacting plans. It was meant to not only be a lasting worldly testament to sacrifice, it was a massive collector. The Elders had no idea how Shining Sun was powering his evil spell, whatever it was, it had to be unceasing and strong, but they chose something as permanent as they could, the sun itself. The Mound had been built to collect and channel the power of sunlight down to the Elders' spell. The seven stones that Anna now wore around her neck were imbued with the magic itself. The Elders channeled every part of themselves into the spell even into death. Shining Sun and his magic pushed against, but couldn't get past the Elders while they could never defeat him either. So the stalemate had lasted for centuries until the Mound had been torn down.

Without the Mound to fuel their magic, the Elders' spell eventually lost power and Shining Sun's influence began to seep past the Mound Builders until they were no longer able to hold him back. He corrupted the community above with his evil until he was able to release his undead army. Now the community was destroyed, another group of people'd had their way of life destroyed by Shining Sun. His power grew with each death, and with each new zombie. It was up to Anna to finish what the Mound Builders could not. She slowly opened her eyes and stood up looking at the path she was taking with new understanding. "I'm coming for you, Shining Sun", Anna whispered in the old dialect.

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