The huge male of the Band, the obvious leader, spoke for the first time, weapons laid bare in his hands; he had one eye on the crowd who inched closer, their stunned stupor breaking, "She is dead."

I nodded. "Fire maybe. If she can't be controlled, it'll take fire." Or maybe she needed to lose her head. I didn't know. It's not like I'd raised a bunch of crazy-ass zombies before.

Maybe she needed some head-rolling action. Yeah, that'd be mighty permanent.

I looked beyond the royals and saw the rest of the dead, waiting behind them, their eyes trained on me patiently.

Waiting.

I turned to the Queen, the dead one. "Restrain the men Gary and Joe Zondorae," I commanded.

She flinched, trying to shake off my command even as I gave it and moved toward Clara again.

Okay.

I put intent and juice behind it, taking Tiff's hand in mine, smoothly siphoning off her AFTD. "Do as I command!" I yelled into the absorbent atmosphere of the sphere, my force of will thrown in her direction like a sucker punch.

She bowed over at the waist, hissing as if in pain.

Straightening, she began to move toward Clara and the female warrior of the Band.

Jonesy said, "She's gonna need the torch, dude."

Yeah... or something.

Then there was the Prince, my eyes shifting to him.

"What about him?" I said to the general crowd.

"He makes Ada look tame," Daniel said.

Damn.

The female warrior of the Band with eyes like pale violet, stepped forward. Raising her dagger, she wielded it with graceful speed, smoothly moving beside the corpse of Queen Ada, taking off her arm in a sliding pull. The limb jerked out of the shoulder with a sickening pop that echoed in the stillness of the tunnel. The bystanders were silent, watching the dead fill the tight confines of the tunnel, the air burdened with the fragrance of their decomposition.

Several people started coughing with what I liked to think of as the pre-barf gag. Pretty soon it wouldn't be pre anymore. It'd be happening.

That'd keep 'em busy.

The female warrior raised her blade again to take the next piece of the zombie queen off while I turned my attention to the sane zombies and saw the Prince casually backhand her before her blade connected.

She flew backwards, knocking her head against the wall of the interior of the sphere and slid down, dazed.

The leader of the Band growled deep in his throat and rushed Prince Frederic, his powerful muscles bunching and contracting as he plowed toward his intended target.

Alex piped in from a couple of meters away, "They're strong!" he hollered in warning.

The male of the Band never hesitated; charging, he lowered his head like a mighty bull and surged toward the Prince, lifting him bodily as he made contact. The royal zombie grabbed the huge man and swung him around, releasing him as he used the momentum of the leader's charge against him. The crown that'd been on the Prince's head went spinning off onto the dirt floor, rolling until it hit the feet of the zombie horde that had poured through the massive door. The ginormous body of the leader of the Band was hurtled in the same direction where the female lay, equally stunned. The leader trained his eyes on the remainder of the Band.

Zombie Prince shifted his gaze to Queen Clara. Madness flowed in the depths of his eyes like pond scum. I watched him come, much faster than the Queen had, who was working her way toward Clara at this very moment, minus a limb.

She was out-of-balance but tenacious as hell. Like all zombies.

They were a motivated group.

I heard Clara whimper, the soft sound of terror seemingly igniting a match underneath the warrior who never left her side. As soon as he heard it he treated the zombie like three of the fragment instead of the one dead man it was, having seen the example of his Bandmate thrown like a toy. I watched him approach my out-of-control zombie with caution.

He moved in, his directive to protect the living queen in the face of anything never changing. Never faltering. I saw it on his face like a promise.

Against things which lived.

Or those that had died.

I had all I could do to contain the remaining dead. Taking the crazy zombies into account, I had to guess about who was bad... and who was good. I'd start with the science sib squad. Those two needed to be subdued.

Not a lot of deliberation needed for them.

Definitely in the bad tally side.

I flung that directive to a group of five corpses that had followed behind the royal wackos and they moved toward the Zondorae brothers like a wave of controlled menace, their smell preceding them.

I was used to it.

They weren't. The brothers began gagging even as they were pegging the zombies with their useless pulse guns, covering their mouths with the other hand.

Jonesy chortled. "Hey guys, those aren't gonna work... I'm just saying."

I was too busy coordinating my directives to notice Jonesy's excellent command of sarcasm.

Although it was much appreciated.

I watched as the big guy, Matthew, started hacking at the Prince. He was taking chunks out of the guy.

I was all for it, I couldn't control crazy, apparently. I didn't have the heart to tell him it wouldn't do much good. He'd keep coming.

Zombie resilience.

Three of the Band came from behind to help but the remaining dead were clumsy. They stumbled through the Band and the assembled crowd of losers from the other sphere and pushed people aside like bowling pins. After all, they were just following orders.

Subdue the crowd was about as simple a command as I'd ever given. But they were not a thinking bunch, stumbling around on the way to their goal.

Single-minded dudes.

But it had allowed a hole to open between where the corpses struggled into the three of the Band trying to aid Clara and opened just wide enough a gap for the dead Prince to latch onto Queen Clara.

Clara screamed as the dead hand of the Prince clamped onto her shoulder. I knew from experience it would be fierce and immobile. I could see her sway with the crushing pain of it.

I moved forward just as Matthew of the Band reached her.

I grabbed my zombie reflexively. "Release her!" I bellowed into its rotting face, the zombie inches taller than I.

It paused, meeting my eyes, the obsidian stare without light. "No, Master."

Then the longsword that was free of its binding took his head off at the base of the neck in a practiced swipe, so quickly executed, I felt the breeze at its passing.

Queen Clara was released from the vise grip of the dead Prince forever.

She did not know it, her consciousness slipping away even as Matthew bent to catch her against him, his long sword tip stabbed into the earth of the tunnel.

He looked ready for anything.

No matter what.

No matter how many.

CHAPTER 12

I watched the Band turn their attention to the angry mob that had filtered through the tunnel where they stood, all but Matthew.

He had eyes only for the dead Queen, minus an arm, ready to snatch the unconscious Clara out of his arms.

Jade rushed to his side. "I'll hold her while you..." she couldn't finish it. I knew Jade saw what his intent was. Death Intent. He wore it like a coat of armor, he'd killed before. I could see it as he walked toward the dead Queen. She knew it too, hissing at him as he made his way to her.

He never broke stride.

I looked at Jade and she met my stare. I could feel what she felt.

Jade could feel the Evil. The Queen had been evil.

Evil in life.

Evil in death.

Evil.

I let him go about his business and turned my attention to the other big ass problem on the list. There were so many I was getting distracted.

I found the Zondorae brothers easily.

Mewling within the circle of the dead.

My dead.

I smiled and strode to where they were.

The Zondorae brothers were covered in their own puke. It probably almost masked the scent of the newly dead that surrounded them.

Mostly.

It was raw corpse or vomit... but the puke was closer to their noses.

"Hi guys!" I said almost cheerfully. My sympathy, zero.

They scowled. I watched their expressions ask if it could be any worse.

Probably not. Although, they could be dead.

My dead.

I smiled and their expressions went from fear to anger.

"Oh yeah, it's gonna get exciting for you chumps," I said in a conversational tone.

The corpses tightened their hold, reacting to my state of mind like a ripple in the water going out, out... and endlessly on.

One gave a long lick of Gary's ear, the smell of the decaying tongue causing the scream he had held in check to escape his mouth in a wail that pierced the silence.

It was the catalyst for the panic which began to sweep the tunnel.

I jumped when I saw the crowd swell and surge everywhere as my eyes sought Jade.

"You're safe," I saw Jade say and relaxed only to tense again as the mob flowed toward us.

I watched Jade and Queen Clara notice Matthew doing the hack-a-thon on the dead Queen, her rotting flesh flinging itself like gruesome and bloodless rain around us.

The dead did not bleed.

My heart clenched in my chest when the small Queen slid a dirk out of the strange boy's clothing she wore and headed toward the dead Queen.

I didn't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out her goal.

She'd never meet it. The dead were stronger than the living.

Wanting to end them wasn't enough.

I jogged to meet her, grabbing Jade as I did.

The dead Queen laughed out of a mouth with loosened teeth as Clara's protector took pieces of her flesh with his small knife.

I knew she didn't feel pain, she staggered toward Clara, ignoring his assault. Instead, she focused on Clara, hatred a mask on her face. Even in death, it was a window to who she'd been.

Queen Ada smiled with purpose, she knew Clara, reaching for her just as Matthew looked behind him and saw the woman he protected approach the dead Queen who would not stop until she harmed Clara.

Note for future: insane zombies were intent on one thing.

Murder.

Why the dead Queen wanted to kill Queen Clara was a mystery but I wasn't going to let the zombie I'd raised kill the ones that we'd come to save.

Clara and her people.

Matthew moved to swing and was caught in the mob as they pushed forward, the bellowing scream from the Zondorae retard igniting the flame of their panic instantly. Matthew was shoved to the side with three of his Bandmates and swept aside as a river of people flowed between him and Clara.

The dead Queen wrapped her hand in the deep red of Clara's hair and torqued her head back, close enough to kiss.

"No!" Matthew yelled, his terror at the zombie's nearness and the strength for harm she possessed caused even the crowd to pause at the tone in his bellowed alert.

"Hold them," I told the zombies that had the Zondorae brothers prisoner. Their rotting arms were surer than the tightest bindings, as I made them babysit the asshats that started all this.

Queen Ada hissed in Clara's face, "I will be Queen. Not your whore of a mother or her simpleton spawn," she ground out, a tooth dropping out of her mouth, rolling down the front of Clara's tunic to fall at their feet.

My eyes followed that decaying tooth and I snapped my head up at attention. Wow, family drama big time.

Two guys that were dressed like the mob but didn't look like the derelict spawn roaming around, approached the zombie Queen from behind. I opened my mouth to warn them but Clara took care of it by bringing up her arm in a twisting lunge and severed the one arm the dead queen had, the dead flesh giving way to the sharpness of the metal, the hand which gripped Clara's hair, shaken off and falling to the ground to join the tooth that lay there.

It would've been funny in different circumstances.

Dead parts scattered all around. It made no difference. The zombie Queen... kept coming anyway.

Ada lunged her head forward into Clara's, using her head as weapon. Clara stumbled back into the people behind her as the corpse that'd apparently been her mother rode her to the ground, her remaining teeth in full reveal.

Her mouth open to chew and maim.

Clara her target.

But the little Queen used the crowd behind her like a trampoline and sprang forward, leaping onto the zombie, who toppled under her momentum. Ada lost her balance, without one arm and only the stump of the other, she was unable to right herself.

The dead Queen lurched her neck forward like a bird looking for a worm from its parent, trying to sink her teeth into Clara's hand that was near her face. Clara slapped the Queen's face and I watched as the flesh flew away with a wet splatter on the dirt of the tunnel floor. My zombie sat up underneath Clara's straddle and went toward her neck to tear out the fragile artery that beat there.

I met Matthew as he pushed the crowd away and we reached for Clara at the same moment.