I moan. It’s not the worst pain I’ve endured, but it still hurts like a mother.
“Shane! Shane!” a man shouts in the distance.
I lift my head a little just to see what all the commotion is.
A man in his mid-twenties is pushing people out of his way as he races towards us, his eyes locked on the man in front of me—Shane, presumably.
The runner stops, sweat beading on his brow as he tries to catch his breath.
“Shane,” he says, drawing in a deep breath, “he’s gone.”
I go still, sharpening my focus on the conversation.
Ahead of me, Shane halts, as do the men holding me.
“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Shane says. I can hear the banked violence in his voice.
“The horseman,” the man says, breathless. “His cage was empty—”
The earth shivers then. Just a little. A few pebbles go skittering and some nearby people look around.
Shane steps up to the messenger, his voice dropping low, “Then where—the fuck—did he—”
All at once, the ground lurches. Shane tenses, and the man across from him stumbles a little. There’s a momentary pause where the earth seems to resettle, but then it begins to shake violently. Tents sway—a few of them even go down. Up ahead, I hear people shout and rush away from a spot up the path where the ground is swelling. The mound grows larger and larger until, all at once, it splits open. From it, a desiccated hand reaches out.
Now the shouts turn into screams, and people are running away from the undead creature rising from the ground.
As I kneel there, I smile.
Thanatos is finally awake. And he’s taking his revenge.
Chapter 56
Interstate 10, Arizona
August, Year 27 of the Horsemen
The revenant claws its way out, even as some of the braver men and women are grabbing machetes and hunting knives and moving towards the creature. Shane is one of them.
In the distance, I can hear more screams starting up, along with wet, meaty sounds. It’s enough to spook my guards. One of them releases me, sprinting back down the path. The other man hesitates, then releases me, backing away before turning on his heel and fleeing as well.
Overhead, I hear the great roar of wings. My heart pounds madly as I look to the sky. I catch sight of Death’s dark form heading towards us.
I smile again.
“I’d run if I were you,” I say to Shane’s back.
All around us, the screams are increasing. People are beginning to run every which way. I can hear someone shouting, “Zombie! Zombie! Zomb—” The voice cuts off in a gurgle.
Shane swivels around to face me just as the revenant finishes dragging itself out of the earth.
He eyes me as I rise to my feet.
“I’ll deal with you in a moment,” he says, pointing his blade at me.
“You won’t though,” I say as the horseman lowers himself to the earth several yards behind Shane. “Death will kill you, and then, if you’re particularly unlucky, he’ll force your corpse to serve me.”
Thanatos lands, standing amongst the carnage like a true angel of the apocalypse. His black wings fold behind him.
I know Death’s aware of me, but his wrathful eyes are focused on Shane. He walks towards the man just as Shane turns around. He nearly loses his footing when he catches sight of the horseman.
“Lazarus is right,” Thanatos says. “You will die, and then you will serve my mate.”
Over Death’s shoulder, the newly risen revenant grabs a man with a ginger beard and stringy red hair.
The bearded man swings the blade he grips at the revenant, slicing through desiccated sinew and shattering several rib bones. The zombie grabs him by the head and twists.
Snap.
Shane curses, staggering back. Meanwhile, Death watches him, a cold, forbidding look on his face.
Seconds later, the bearded man rises, his neck bent oddly, his eyes unseeing.
“Jackson?” Shane says to the man.
Jackson strides towards Shane, his weapon still gripped in his hand. Shane barely has time to block the blow.
“What the fuck, man!” he shouts. But Jackson comes at him again. And then the mummified zombie and a few other newly dead men close in on Shane until he is the center of all their attention. I hear one bone break, then another. Shane cries out in pain, and I can see him struggling against all these new adversaries.
He glances over his shoulder, true terror in his eyes, as they begin to rip him apart.
It takes less than a minute for Shane to die, then only seconds for him to come back to life. His eyes are dull and lifeless; gone is that hot temper and the cruel confidence. Now he moves mindlessly with the others.