Ascended

It was the first time that I’d known a person before they become a zombie.

As time passed, the zombie's hair falls out. Their incisors get longer until they resemble fangs. Their skin gets dark, dirty, and leathery. The older a zombie is, the less human they look. Until now, I had never thought about the humans that the zombies had been. Zombies were monsters that had to be killed. As I looked at the fresh zombie in the cage, I couldn’t stop thinking that it was still Sera.

She was wearing a white gown. It must have been what she had changed into last night after she went to Val’s room. The gown was covered in mud and blood. The gash on her neck was where the blood had come from. The magic of the infection was already starting to heal the wound. By tomorrow, it wouldn’t even be there. That was the downside of the infection. Zombies fed on magic, and that magic kept their bodies running after it fried their minds.

I started doing math; it took a few hours for the infection to animate a body. Whoever had killed Sera had done so at most an hour or two after I had fallen asleep. I mentally berated myself. I should have been more attentive. If I had paid more attention, then I should have been able to stop this.

“She’s… She’s…” Val closed her eyes to try to stop the tears.

“She’s dead,” I put my hand on her shoulder. I touched her chin with my other hand so I could look into her eyes. When she opened them, I spoke.

“I will help you find who did this.” Anger laced every word. Humans should not be killing their own, “I’m not leaving until we solve this.”

She wiped her face, “Why?”

I thought about her question for a moment. Zombies were Bokor business. Humans killing other humans fell under the laws of whichever city they were in. Technically, I had no authority to investigate the murder, but whoever had killed Sera had also turned her into a zombie to try to cover their tracks. Humans murdering each other might not fall under my jurisdiction, but humans making zombies did.

“She didn’t deserve this.” I stood up and looked down into the pen, “Besides, the Bokor need to know who is making more zombies.”

The look on her face was the same as if I had turned purple.

“What?” I asked.

“You don’t know?” She asked.

“Know what?” I scanned her, searching for some clue, “Do you know who is doing this?”

She eyed me for a few seconds and then took a deep breath, “You are.” Her voice was calm and firm.

“Me?” I sighed, “I didn’t do this. I don’t kill humans!” I paused and lowered my voice, “I didn’t kill Sera.”

“Not you.” She waved her hand north, “You. The Bokor.” She looked back at me, “Do you seriously not know about this?”

“About what?” My stomach twisted in a knot. I didn’t know what she was about to say, but I dreaded what lies the humans might be spreading about the Bokor.

“The tax.” She pointed at the fourth zombie in the pen. It had been the man who had been killed in her bar in the fight the night before. “All our dead are thrown in here to pay it.”

“What tax?” I crossed my arms. “The Bokor are trying to wipe out zombies, not make more.”

“For protection.” Val said, “We have to pay the Bokor with zombies or they won’t patrol our area.” Her words were full of anger, “That’s why I became a wrangler, so the lottery would stop.”

“A lottery?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The Bokor would never force humans to make zombies.

“The old, the sick.” Val started to tear up again, “They were gathered by the gate.” She pointed to her left. We couldn’t see the gate, but I saw the turrets that flanked it, “The losers were taken out to the pen.” She pointed down at the two areas below us. “They’d leave them there.”

It made me sick. I wanted to tell her she was lying. That the Bokor would never condone such a thing, but there was too much pain in her words. Someone had lied to these people and got them to do horrible things.

“The Bokor didn’t ask for this.” I said, “I promise you, we would never condone something like that.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” The mayor said as he stepped around the turret behind her. Guards moved in front of him and behind me. More guards circled the scaffold on the ground.

“Everything she’s said is true.”