The Living Mountain: A Zombie Prophecy

by sigrist

((A/N: This story is official TZP canon, if you wanna read more check out my profile. Also, I took some liberties with the prompt about the 45th president))

The first night was difficult but Yul knew it would be. He had a lamp with him but it was tucked away in his bag. The Sentinels wouldn't let James go freely and the foothills had no cover so any guards on duty up in the mountain would see the light. Aside from the fact that Yul couldn't see anything, James' coordination wasn't what it used to be so he kept falling. At first Yul tried to help him back up but that was a mistake. James wasn't interested in help, he only wanted flesh.

As the sun was rising, Yul heard a river. He found it and followed its bank until he decided they'd reached a narrow enough bend that James would be able to cross, then he waded into the cold water. In the thirty two years that Yul had been alive, he had only left the mountains three times. He had a comfortable life in the Sentinel's base and his job allowed him to stay in relative safety, James had always been the risk taker. He volunteered at a very young age to join the exploratory teams and proved himself to be a very adept warrior and diplomat. Yul couldn't help but wonder how the situation would be different if their roles were reversed. James probably understood what happened to rocks in a river bed when they accumulated algae. He would have known that a zombie might not be able to keep its footing on such a slippery surface. That wasn't how things were, though. No, Yul was leading James in a world he didn't understand, across a river he couldn't have known would be so treacherous. James was the knowledgeable one, the brave one, and he was reduced to a clumsy undead oaf who barely had enough balance to walk on dry land let alone find secure footing on the green rocks at the bottom of the river.

As James splashed down into the water, Yul felt the chain between them grow tight. James was also the heavier one and as the water rushed his body away it pulled Yul along. He struggled to swim against the current but with James in tow it was impossible. He was dragged under the surface of the river and splashed up just long enough to get a breath of air before being dragged back down again. He felt James' fingers on his feet and he kicked them away. He tried to break free of the suffocating water but the chain that secured him to James kept him under the surface. His hands stretched up over his head and he could feel the air but he couldn't reach it. Darkness started to creep into his vision and as he decided that it might just be easier to give up, he felt a hand grab hold of his and pull him up onto dry ground. He coughed and spit up water, surprised at how badly the liquid could burn if it was misdirected through the body.

It was hard to stay conscious, he had such a long night, but when he managed to open his eyes he could see the person who saved him hauling James out of the river. "Please, don't hurt him." The person looked back at Yul and he saw their green eyes. "You're... you're a beast..." The world was spinning as his body finally refused to operate and he slipped into an anxious, fitful sleep. Sleep that was filled with dreams of the undead, the angry Sentinels who may well be hunting them, and beasts. The last one scared him the most. Beasts lived on the other side of the mountains, in the Deadlands. Yul never expected to find one in the Greenlands where the humans formed their colonies and sacrificed any child born with the eyes of the beast.

When Yul woke up, it took him a moment to remember what was happening. The sun was filtering through green leaves and he had so rarely seen such a sight that it put him into a panic. He wasn't in the base, he was outside. Why? He looked around and saw James, his eyes were pale and his skin was sunken. Yul was quick to back away from James and he realized they were no longer chained together.

"Don't worry." The voice was coming from somewhere up high. Yul glanced towards the canopy but there was nobody there. "He won't hurt you, not while I'm around." There was a rush of black shadows that whisked around in the treetops and came rocketing down towards Yul. It circled around him and then traveled to his bag, which had been rested against a tree trunk. The shadows tightened and consolidated into a person. It wasn't really a person, though. It was a beast. The beast who saved him from drowning.

"You're a beast," he said for the second time.

"Yeah, you mentioned that already." The beast was picking through Yul's bag now and it made him feel uncomfortable but how could he stop a beast from doing what it wanted?

"That darkness, you're the Shadow Beast aren't you? The beast of the Greenlands. There are stories about you but I never really believed them. The beasts all live in the Deadlands."

"Good to know I'm worth telling stories about but please, call me Wyatt. That's my real name, the name I had Before."

"Are you saying you were alive Before the End? It's been nearly a hundred years."

The beast smiled and his eyes flashed with emotion. "Yeah, I was, but I'd barely call it living. Where'd you get a dead one anyway? There's only one place I know of where you can find them now and I don't think you've been there." He pulled the round lamp out of Yul's bag and it flickered on. The ball of light lifted up into the air and wandered around aimlessly for a moment. It bobbed around Wyatt's head, made a quick stop near James, and finally fell into orbit around Yul. "I know those lamps, they're Sentinel tech."

"Yeah, they are. Designed to detect nearby lifeforms and orbit them for a portable source of hands free light. If it ignored you..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm dead, James is dead, I don't think you needed a lamp to tell you that."

"You know his name?"

Wyatt reached out and touched James' face. "Of course I do, I also know that you did a forty five."

Yul gulped and pretended to be ignorant. "Forty five?"

"On the Sentinels list of illegal and immoral acts. Number forty five is something like, 'Hide a dead one or otherwise elect to pursue personal selfish endeavours that put into jeopardy the safety of the collective.'" Wyatt stared at Yul and he knew that he had no way of refuting the statement. He'd recited the forty fifth act word for word. "Beasts have a connection with zombies. Haven't you heard the stories?"

"My people talk about the early beasts. Felicia the First, Corrigan the Earthshaker, Samantha the Serpent."

"And, apparently, Wyatt the Shadow Beast. Each of us have our own unique survival techniques but two things we all have in common are the ability to control and use zombies as soldiers, and a hidden bloodlust that grows stronger as we do."

"So, you're controlling him. That's why you said he wouldn't hurt me?"

Wyatt lowered his hand from James' face and looked at Yul "Where are you gonna take him? There are colonies all over the Greenlands. Redcliff, the Ragers, none of them would hesitate to brain this guy if they saw him. Maybe you should have taken him to the Deadlands."

"And how would I survive there? There's no food, no water. At least out here I can stay alive and I have a chance to keep James alive, too."

"Don't fool yourself, he's no more alive than I am."

Yul looked up at the orange ball of light orbiting his head and remembered the way it avoided James. "I know but there's gotta be something inside him that still functions like a human."

Wyatt stepped back from James and said, "Why don't you give him a closer look and decide for yourself."

Yul slowly walked towards James and sat down beside him. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment and Yul searched for anything he recognized. For a split second it seemed like James' gaze regained its focus. He struggled to grunt at Yul and it made Yul's breath catch in his throat.

"James?" He asked, "I need you, babe. Come back to me, okay?" He touched James' face like he'd seen Wyatt do but it didn't make him feel any better. The skin under his fingers was cold and rubbery.

One of James' hands reached up and clumsily caressed Yul's face in return. Yul laughed and choked back some tears. "You are in there, aren't you?"

"He's just trying to scratch you," Wyatt said and the words were like fire. "He doesn't know you."

"How can you be so sure?"

Wyatt tapped his head and said, "We're connected, him and I. I know what's going on in his head."

"So then what do I do with him?"

"Other than put him out of his misery?"

"I can't do that."

"Bring him to Eden, that's the only place he'll be safe."

"The Living Mountain? It's just a myth."

"You thought that about me too but I assure you she's no myth. She's not a mountain either."

"What is she then?"

"She's like me. A weapon of genetic warfare, a beast. And she's only about three days west of here."

"The Sentinels would know if there was a beast the size of a mountain filled with zombies in the Greenlands."

"The Sentinels don't know anything your earthborn prophet doesn't want you to know."

"What do you know about the prophet?"

"I've heard stories."

"The stories I've heard about you, by the way? They're not friendly. You're blamed for every lost exploratory party, every dead hunter. Why should I listen to anything you tell me?"

"I do suppose that's a reputation I've earned for myself but I've got a family out here, you know? A family that doesn't need your prophet sticking his nose into our business. If I need to kill a few Sentinels to maintain our secrets then that's what I'm gonna do."

"So then why are you helping me?"

Wyatt shrugged and looked at James. "It's not very common to see zombies these days. You humans burn all of your dead the moment they pass from this world so I don't usually get to interact with the undead. You don't understand the rush that you get, the high that comes from power and authority. My mentor would be livid if she knew I was here but I got pretty good at hiding myself from her."

"Why would she be mad?"

"The power is a drug. The more I give into it, the more I feel the need to kill. No, it's not really like that. It's not that I feel the need to kill more when I'm controlling the dead, it's just that it seems like fighting that need is less important. I start to realize that what I want to do, what I was programmed to do, is kill people like you." He stared at Yul and after a moment of tense silence he said, "But of course that's not true. I'm programmed to kill anything and everything, not just people like you."

"Maybe... maybe James and I should be on our way then."

Wyatt stared at Yul and Yul noticed his gaze was somehow less human. When he spoke his voice was more frightening without changing at all. "Yes. Maybe you should."

"Thank you for your help." Yul was securing the chain around James' waist but he tried not to take his eyes off the beast. After he connected the other end to himself he looked back up to Wyatt but the beast was gone. Yul glanced around the forest. Although he couldn't see Wyatt anywhere, he couldn't help but assume that he was hiding in every shadow. When James went back to mindlessly trying to eat him, Yul finally let himself believe that the beast was gone and even though he wasn't sure he could believe the words of a bloodthirsty stranger, he led James westward.

Two days passed without encountering another person, dead or alive. Yul secured James safely out of reach whenever he needed to rest but it didn't help him sleep, not really. Every time he found himself drifting off a jolt of anxiety would shoot through him. What if James wasn't secure enough? What if some human colonizers were around and found him? On the third day, after tying James to a tree and finding a spot to lie down, Yul finally fell into a deep sleep. Maybe it was the fact that, if Eden was real, they had almost made it, or maybe it was just the physical exhaustion he was fighting but whatever it was that finally let Yul sleep, he regretted it the moment he opened his eyes.

There were four people standing around him, pointing sharp blades down at him, and two more watching James as he moaned and swiped out with his dead hands.

"You got a dead one," One of the people said to Yul, "Why would you keep it around? You gotta brain and burn those suckers before they can eat you."

"No, please, don't hurt him."

"Hurt him? Boy, this guy is dead. He don't feel pain but he sure would love to inflict it on you or me."

"You can't, please. I'm taking him to Eden, he won't hurt anyone there."

"Eden ain't real." The leader of the group said, "Well, she is, but there ain't no dead ones living there. We been all up and down that mountain and never saw a single dead one."

Yul felt something inside him deflating. He looked at the ground and said, "I love him."

"Course you do or you wouldn't be so damn stupid. You think none of us loved people we brained? Love don't stop the dead ones from coming back and eating you." He looked to the two people standing by James but before he could give the kill order Yul saw them both drop to their knees. They each went to grab their heads but before their hands could reach, their skulls exploded, spraying bone and brain and blood everywhere.

"The Shadow Beast!" One of the others said. James suddenly stopped groping the air and stared at the leader, who was now pressing his weapon securely against Yul's neck. James seemed over come with a wave of concentration and coordination. He reached down to release the chain from his waist and sprang through the air. He ripped into the man who held Yul prisoner and the others started to scatter. Yul watched as one by one the people fell to their knees and their brains exploded.

Yul was so shocked by the sight he barely had the strength to scurry away from James. His zombie lover was on his feet. He cracked his neck and turned on Yul, blood pouring from his mouth and down the front of him. He cocked his head and reached towards Yul but Yul pushed himself further back. Wyatt materialized beside James and Yul noticed his eyes looked more beastly than ever before. "I told you, he won't hurt you with me around."

"What are you even doing here? Leave us alone!"

Wyatt licked his lips and Yul could see that his teeth had become pointier. "I wanted to, I just... I can't resist it."

Yul took James' hand and allowed the dead man to lift him to his feet. They stared into each other's eyes again and again Yul saw something there that reminded him of James' old human love. "You're sure there's nothing left of him in there?"

"I'm sure, now go. The only way I'll be able to beat this urge to rip you open from the inside is if you take him to Eden and she's not far now. I'm sure she knows you're coming by now, she'll be waiting."

Yul looked to Wyatt again but he was gone. James' eyes lost focus and he tried to grab for Yul but he pulled back. As they traveled on, Yul could see the mountain through the trees but it wasn't the same as the mountains the Sentinels lived in. This one was green and covered with life. Yul led the dead man he loved towards it and as soon as they broke through the line of trees the earth started to shake. The mountain lifted what looked like a rocky head and looked down at Yul and James with glowing green eyes. The head rested back down on the ground and its mouth opened wide. Yul hesitated but as James approached from behind he realized he didn't have much of a choice other than to continue forward.

As they came closer to the cave of a mouth, Yul noticed that the light of the sun just barely cast itself down on several wooden stakes inside with a zombie head posted on each one. They all looked at Yul and their mouths gaped like idiot fish. James still pursued Yul from behind so he didn't have a lot of time to think about his next action. All he could do was move on toward the cave. Someone was walking up and out of the darkness that extended deep into the mountain. He knelt down between the posts and their undead heads and cast his hands in the air. One of them was holding a wickedly curved weapon that looked to be painted with the infected black blood of the undead. The stranger screamed out and it echoed in the mouth of the cave as if he had given his voice to the mountain.

"Welcome to the chamber of horror!" The dead man called out and the cave amplified his words. The sound of it seemed to shift James' focus from Yul to the cave and the dead man walked past his lover, pulling him along with the chain. "Welcome to the psychic maze!"

The stranger greeted them at the entrance to the cave. Up close Yul could see that his skin was white and there were symbols painted on his face, as well as one carved into his forehead. He also had a ring in each nostril and his teeth were sharp little points. He allowed James to walk past him but he stopped Yul from entering the cave. "Victims before my eyes. Evisceration and torture."

"I'm with him," Yul said, gesturing to James but the stranger wouldn't let him pass.

"Victims before my eyes," he said again.

"Only the dead ones are allowed in here, huh?" When the chain between Yul and James prevented James from walking any further, he stopped and looked back. Yul felt their tether and considered his next step. He tugged on the chain and James came shuffling forward.

"I don't think I can follow you in there," he said. "Not like this anyway." He detached the chain on James' end but he didn't leave. That bit of love was in his eyes again and it hurt Yul. He looked at the stranger and asked, "What if I was dead too? You'd let me in, wouldn't you?"

The stranger didn't say anything, he just stared down at Yul with unblinking, black ringed eyes. That was answer enough, as far as Yul was concerned.

"I guess this is it, then." Yul felt his eyes growing wet as he watched James. "The end." Watching the love in James' eyes, Yul moved in closer. He put his arms around James' waist and rested his cheek on his chest. He felt James slowly embrace him back and the tears filling his eyelids broke out and over his face. It hurt at first, when James sunk his teeth deep into Yul's neck but as his blood and his life spilled out over the ground the pain turned to ecstasy and he let his body fall forward against his dead lover.

As his transition took hold, the last thing Yul heard was the horrific voice of the stranger as he touched his face and said, "Welcome to the freak parade."