Dominant Species
Issue Three
by Tom Zjaba

Chapter Four
The First Clue

The sun was overhead as they walked through the woods. While they were used to traveling at night, it was good to actually see where you were going. They could move much faster now that they were not limited to relying on their hearing to seek out trouble. They always walked slowly and listened. Since their eyes were not great in the dark, nor was their sense of smell. But their hearing was quite keen. While the younger men had better night vision than the older men, it still was lacking when compared to the beasts of the forest. They just had to accept that they would never be the great hunters that the wolf or panther was. They had to rely on their ability to use weapons and to think and plan. They found many of the humanoid creatures to be lacking in one sense or another. The orcs had better night vision, but their sense of hearing was weak. They did make it up by having a great sense of smell. This amazed humans as orcs always stunk and they found it hard to believe that creatures with such good sense of smell would not be offended by their own odor.

The one thing about the new world is you were never far from danger. With thousands of new beasts roaming the world, it was easy to find a creature that would pose a serious threat. Most times you could run if you were careful. One advantage of traveling at night was that most creatures were sleeping, so it was easier to avoid them. There were the night threats, werewolves, vampires, bat men and other creatures, but they were fewer in number than the day creatures. During the day, especially during the summer months, you had the dinosaurs to contend with. While they left in the winter, during the summer months they were everywhere. Great herds of grazing dinosaurs would appear as they devoured the forests. And where there were herbivores, there were carnivores. And nothing was worse than the T-Rexes and Raptors. Both are skillful hunters and love to eat the easy to catch humans.

While there were allot of noises in the woods, so far they did not come across anything. The woods were very quiet, which often was a bad sign. Sometimes it meant nothing but other times it meant a large hunter was in the area. This made everyone a bit nervous. This especially made Derrick nervous as he was leading the group. While he had minimal skills as a hunter, his invincibility made him an ideal choice to lead. And his thieving abilities allowed him to detect traps with great efficiency. His "Into the Catacombs" character was an Assassin/Thief. It gave him the ability to blend into shadows, move without making noise, detect traps, pick locks and be able to find a creature's weakness and kill it. None of these powers helped him thirty years ago when he was overwhelmed by hundreds of kobolds. He was able to keep escaping from the chains they put him in, so they finally threw him down the hole and pushed the giant boulder down that pinned him. None of his abilities could help him get that giant boulder off him and he remained trapped.

But in these woods, he could use his powers. He was ahead of the group and moved silently. He scanned for traps as orcs loved to put traps on paths. Even if they weren't going to be there to catch the creature they trapped, the thought that they caused pain to another creature was enough for them. But so far they were in luck, the path was clear. But little did Derrick know that his luck was going to change. As he was following the path, he heard a whistling noise. Instincts took over and he reached out and plucked an arrow out of the air. But he was not fast enough for the next two arrows that hit him in the chest. Being invincible, they just bounced off him. He looked in the path of where the arrows were coming from and saw his aggressor. There were three centaurs with bows. He rushed at them as he pulled out his dagger. Not sure what to make of this small guy running at them, they loaded their bows with arrows and shot another volley at him. Once again, they bounced off him as he charged them. They were worried and started to run off when he caught up with one of them and jump on his back. The other two centaurs rode off in the forest. If Derrick was not in the midst of battle, he would have marveled at the gracefulness of the centaurs. Despite their large bodies, they darted through the trees like deer. But the one he caught was not so graceful. He bucked and reached back trying to throw Derrick off his back. Centaurs are proud creatures and it is an insult for another creature to ride them. Despite being half horse, they have no desire to be a domesticated animal and it is a big reason why they attack humans on contact. Too many times have humans tried to use them for pulling wagons or plows and soon realized that they would rather die than be a work animal. But this majestic creature with his long black hair and black horse body was finding out it was harder to rid himself of Derrick. While there were many things that Derrick was not good at, horse riding was not one of them. He grew up on a horse farm in Montana before his parent's split up and his mother dragged him to Ohio. He was riding horses from an early age and helped tame a few wild horses in his time. This centaur was going to find that it was going to be hard to rid himself of his unwanted passenger. He rode through the forest and ran his body into trees in hope he would scrape Derrick off. What he ended up doing was injuring himself on the rough tree bark. Derrick finally said "We can do this all day if you want or you can stop and we can talk this out." The centaur responded back "I will never speak with a human. I will get you off if I have to kill you." Derrick laughed at him as he said "I cannot be killed." This stopped the centaur in his tracks. He turned his human body and looked at Derrick. "That is why the arrows did not hurt you. I figured you were wearing armor." Derrick looked the great creature back in the eyes but did not loosen his grip on his torso. Lucky for Derrick, he wore a large belt around his human waist. It gave Derrick something to hold onto. Centaurs do not have manes. But they do tend to have long flowing hair. The color of the hair often matches the color of their coat. They also tend to have beards and moustaches as this one did. While their hair grows wild, they always seem to keep their facial hair well groomed. No one could figure out the reason for this. The centaur then speaks to him again "I have heard of others that do not feel pain or cannot be injured." This peaked Derrick's interest as he asked him "Tell me where these others are and I will free you." While Derrick did not know it, centaurs are honest creatures. They can be rather blunt and will tell you what they like or dislike about you but they are not liars. They are very noble creatures and they view their word as a measure of their character. The only centaurs that are dishonest are the ones that share a body with a zebra. He looks at him and says "The legend is there is one who is trapped in the mountain by the great dragon. The dragon keeps him in a cage like a pet and is said to try and kill him with his fiery breath everyday." This prompts another question from Derrick "Where is this cave that houses the dragon?" The centaur looks at him and says "It is south of here in the great smoke mountains." A light comes on in Derrick's eyes as he says "The Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee!" He then jumps off the back of the centaur and says "Thanks for the information. I hope what you said is true." The centaur walks a few steps away and turns to him and says "A centaur never lies. That is the trait of man." He then rides off into the woods and is lost from sight in a matter of seconds. Derrick then rushes back to give the news to the group.

As Derrick comes upon the group, they are standing around wondering where he went. They are in a circle and talking. As he comes out of the woods, they turn to see him and rush to him. "Where did you go?" the chief asked. Derrick then told him the tale of the centaurs and the information he received from them. Everyone listened with great interest. When he finished, the chief said to him "That is true, centaurs do not lie." Derrick responds "I guess that means we will head for the Great Smokey Mountains." The chief agreed as he said "Yes, that will be where we are headed, but I still want to stop at the village we were headed. Maybe we can get some more leads and supplies." Everyone was in agreement and so they continued on their journey. This time, Derrick was closer to the rest of the group.

Chapter Five
The Cursed Village

Two days passed without any major problems. The group slept in the trees at night. While there were dangers in the trees, giant snakes, bat men and even living trees, there were many more on the ground. So every night, they climbed up a tree and looked for a sturdy branch to sleep on. While it was not very comfortable and dangerous if you fell, it did allow them to get some sleep. The men would tie a rope around their waist and tie it to a branch. That way if they fell while sleeping, they would not fall far. The first night, Derrick fell and found himself hanging in the darkness. It scared him, but once he realized what had happened, he was able to pull himself back up and go back to sleep. That is when he realized what a good idea the rope was.

On the third day, the village. There were a bunch of shacks, but no people. As they looked in one shack after another, they found no possessions either. Just a bunch of empty and falling apart shacks. While it had been awhile since the chief had spoken with anyone from the village, he did not hear anything about it being abandoned. Since it was late, they decided that they would stay here and try to figure out the mystery in the morning.

In the middle of the village was a fire pit as most villages had. They found enough wood in the woods to start a fire. Within minutes, they had a roaring fire going and proceeded to cook the few rabbits they were able to capture along the way. They had already skinned the rabbits and just put a stick through them to slowly turn them over the fire. It took awhile to make the rabbits brown and crispy but once they were cooked, they tasted good. Having spent the last few days eating dried meat and raw vegetables, some cooked rabbit tasted like paradise.

As darkness crept over the village, the sound of groans were heard in the distance. At first it was faint, almost like it was part of the wind. But as the woods around the village became pitch black, the groans became louder. The men all looked at each other as they wonder what it was. Howlingmad then grabbed a burning stick out of the fire and lifted it up. He started to walk away from the fire and towards the woods. He put the burning branch in front of him to light the way. As he moved nearer to the woods, the groaning became louder and louder. Once he reached the edge of the forest, he thrust the burning stick into the woods and looked at the illuminated woods. As the flames danced, they revealed something that scared even Howlingmad. In the woods were dozens of dead men. But unlike regular dead men, they were not laying there motionless. Instead they were walking through the woods and headed towards the village. He could tell they were dead because their flesh was rotting. They had worms crawling through their eye sockets and moved in a stiff manner. As he looked around the woods, he could see the dead people coming all around the village. He quickly ran back to the fire and screamed "The dead are coming!" The rest of the men jumped up but did not understand what he was saying. The dead are coming did not make any sense. Bearslayer grabbed him and turned him so they faced each other. "What do you mean the dead are coming?" he said in as calm a voice as he could muster. He had never seen Howlingmad so shook up, so he knew whatever scared him was a real threat. This is the same man who attacked the ettin with only a sword. Howlingmad looked him in the eyes for a second as his eyes darted back and forth with fear "Dozens of dead men are moving around and headed this way." Bearslayer was shocked by this. He had heard of all kinds of monsters as many traveled through their city, but he never heard of dead men walking around. From his experience, once a person died, they were dead. Most of the time they were eaten by other animals. Rarely did they bury their dead as it only attracted scavengers. If anything, they would burn the body to keep it from being eaten. But before he could question Howlingmad anymore, he heard Eightdigit scream out "The dead have come." Sure enough, dozens upon dozens of dead men and women were coming out of the woods and into the village. And they were all coming after the party. "What should we do?" Spearfisher screamed to the chief as he took his spear and rammed it into the body of one of the dead who came too close for his comfort. But instead of dying, the man grabbed the spear that was rammed into his torso and started to pull himself up on it, towards Spearfisher. As the man got closer, he opened his mouth and tried to bite Spearfisher. This made Spearfisher let go of the spear and step back. He watched as the creature struggled to pull the spear out, with no luck. Howlingmad then said "You do you kill what is already dead?" The chief then said "If I remember what happened in the zombie movies, you need to remove the head." They all looked at him to make sure he was being serious. Howlingmad then took his samurai sword and cut off one of the zombie's head. Sure enough, once it was severed from the body, the whole body crumbled to the ground and laid lifeless. The head was still alive for a few seconds as it gnashed its teeth and tried to bite, but after ten seconds, it also died. With this new found knowledge, they all attacked the heads of the zombies. One by one, they fell down and died. But the number of new zombies coming through kept increasing. The chief finally screamed "We better leave or we will be overrun." So they rushed to one of the houses and all rushed in. Once inside, they looked for anything that could be used to block the door. There was a bed that was quickly moved over to block the door. But as they did that, zombies started to smash the windows and tried to climb in. Bearslayer quickly grabbed his bow and proceeded to shoot arrows into the heads of the zombies who were trying to come through the windows. The first arrow hit a male zombie right between the eyes and he fell back. The second one pushes him aside only to get an arrow right in the eye. The arrow drives deep into his eye socket and hit the brain. Blood pours out of the wound as he also falls back. But as soon as he is moved aside, another zombie steps in to take his place.

Meanwhile at another window in the house, Howlingmad is chopping the hands off any zombies who are stupid enough to try and come through the window. There already is a small pile of dismembered hands, all twitching for a few seconds before they stop for good. The chief and Derrick are sitting back and watching. Derrick speaks first "We have to find a way out of here. It is only a matter of time before they overwhelm us." The chief looks over at Derrick and says "We have no idea how many are out there. Plus, we are pretty much stuck here." Derrick then looks up and thinks about going onto the roof. But the roof is solid wood and there is nothing they can stand on to reach it. It is a high ceiling. He then thinks of a different approach. He rushes over to Eightdigit and asks for his axe. Eightdigit resists at first but with some persuading from Bearslayer, he hands it over. Derrick then heads over to one of the windows and climbs out. As he gets halfway through the window, the creatures all start grabbing him and pull him out. He is quickly pulled to the ground and they begin to cover him as they try to rip and tear his flesh. One by one, the zombies try to bite him with no luck. They try to scratch with their fingers and they tear at him with their teeth. But they cannot bring any harm to Derrick. After a good ten minutes of trying, they slowly get up and walk away. This is what he hoped would happen. As they leave him, he rises to his feet and picks up the axe. With their backs turned to him, he swings the axe into the first zombie's head. The blow knocks him to the ground with blood gushing out of his head. Derrick then pulls the axe from his head and swings at the next zombie. This time he hits it in the neck and almost decapitates the poor creature. The axe reaches the spine when it stops. The zombie turns around and his head flops to one side. Derrick pulls the axe from its head as he prepares for another swing. This time he snaps the neck bone and the head falls to the ground. With this, the other zombie's turn to meet this aggressor. This is what he hoped would happen. As they start walking towards him, he starts to run away. But he runs slowly so they can follow. He knows if they lose sight of him, they will not come. One by one the lumbering dead turn and begin to pursue him. Within minutes, he has a good fifty zombies following him.

After ten minutes, the town is empty and the zombies are all gone. The group slowly comes out of the building and look around to make sure none of the dead are still here. Once they are sure that the village is safe, they look to the chief for guidance. They wonder if they should follow after Derrick or if they should stay put. The chief looks at them and says "Why don't we find a safer place to camp and try to rest. Derrick will be back as soon as he can." They all look at him and while they don't all agree, they follow. To put them at ease, the chief reminds them "He cannot be hurt, so he will return."

While they are making camp, Derrick leads the zombies to a cliff he remembered passing. When they came this way, they went up a hill and there was a cliff on the right of the path upwards. As he leads them to the cliff, he looks down. The fall is a few hundred feet. He figures that should be enough to kill most if not all of the zombies. So he stands at the end of the cliff and takes the axe and throws it at a nearby tree. The axe flies and sticks into the trunk of the tree. Within seconds, the zombies start pouring out of the woods with their eerie groans. Men and women shuffle towards him with their arms outstretched and the mouths wide open, ready to tear into his flesh. They see him standing next to the cliff and keep moving forward. When they are almost upon him, he jumps off the cliff and falls towards the rocks at the bottom. Being stupid, the zombies follow him off the cliff. Like lemmings, they fall off the cliff and crash to the rocks below. Three or more zombies at a time fall to their death, with the ones behind them proceeding to the same fate. The fall smashes their arms, legs and heads. Most of the zombies die from the impact as their heads are smashed and their brains splattered, but the ones that don't immediately die are too injured to do anything. They try to move with their broken limbs but find them unreceptive. They just lay there, groaning and twitching. Derrick gets up and looks at all the zombies and just laughs. He thinks about kicking their heads like footballs, but he figures it would be better to just head back. The hill is pretty high and he is not exactly the athletic type. He then begins his ascent up the hill, looking back and laughing. After a good hour of climbing, he reaches the top, dirty and gasping for air. The climb should not have taken as long but as he quickly finds out, he is not in the best of shape. It makes him think back to gym class and how he and his friends used to find ways to avoid it. Something about being targets for the jocks in dodge ball made them realize this class was not helping them either physically or academically. He then heads over to the tree and with some effort, retrieves the axe. With the axe in hand, he heads back to camp to let the others know they are safe for now.

Dominant Species © Tom Zjaba 2006
 

[Main Page] [Colt the Armadillo] [Crossed Swords] [Unicorn Kings] [Prose Stories]
KZ Comics, Colt the Armadilo, Crossed Swords © Tom Zjaba